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The structural problem of the
shortage of money
to complete works that became
increasingly complex and costly with the passage of time is a constant refrain
in the report sent by the Venetian governors to Candia - as in other parts of the
dominion on land and sea - which was read to the
Senate at the conclusion of their mandate. Such
reports were intended as model instruments of self-glorification for
their public throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. At this early
period they were written in a particularly lively style, and served as primary
sources both for the knowledge of territories subject to Venice as well as for
the philosophy and practice of those sent to govern them. On his return from a
stint as
Provveditore of Candia in 1578, Paolo
Contarini justified his failure to complete the restructuring of the fort of
San Dimitri, as the money simply ran out at a certain point. His successor in
this assignment, Natale Dandolo, complained in 1580 that the
Revenue Offices of the city ('Camera fiscale') were drained because of militia expenses,
so that nothing remained for the maintenance of defense works. These governors'
denunciations were therefore aimed at the Revenue Offices, which were
institutions for collecting money accumulated by direct or indirect taxes.
Renominated governor of Candia, Giovanni Sagredo claimed in 1604 that rather
than leave the fortress incomplete, it would have been better never to have
started it. As Governor Paolo Contarini pointed out in his report, a final
increase in this debt was due to the fact that they had to continue paying the
defense experts
('proti' ,
supervisors, and engineers) although the work was at a standstill.
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