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Since ever Venice is well known as the City of trade. The maximum splendour was reached during the Serenissima Republic government...

...thanks to the ability of the Venetians navigator
There was a rich trade with the Orient, that also inspired the building of some of the Palaces and Churches, a great example of it is the Saint Mark’ s Church,  goods of any kind, Precious silks
Spice, jewel and gold arrived daily in the old port of the City, Rialto.
Merchant for everywhere coming to Venice for their business had some dedicated place to trade and to stay, those places are known as “ Fonteghi” from the Arab “ Funduq” (modest house – inn)

Today of the three existing National “ Fonteghi” only the “ Fontego dei Tedeschi “ (german) in Rialto and the “ Fontego dei Turchi “ (Turkish) between Riva di Biasio and San Stae are still existing, the last one is site of the Museum of Natural History, the “ Fontego dei Persiani “ (Persian) burned down, it was next to the Fontego dei Tedeschi”.
The existence of the “ Fonteghi”  dedicated to Merchants of a specific Nationality was due to the great amount of trade and business generated with those people, that’ s also the reason why they where built on the major water way of the City, the Grand Canal, the prestigious location was easily reachable by ships (not to be mention that the size of those ships is….slightly smaller than the actual ones).

There where also Public “ Fonteghi” il “ Fontego della Farina “ (flour) the “ Fontego del Curame” (leather) near Saint Silvestro and in San Severo the “ Fontego dell’Acqua Vita” (wines and Spirits)
In San Severo.
Those palaces becomes rapidly real Markets,  storage rooms and primitive Inns. However a sort of ghetto too.
Quite important the existence of  public Granary, the “ Magazin del Megio “ (Millet storage) (still existing in San Stae) and the “ Magazin del Sal “ Salt Storage that can be seen in Saint Gregorio.

Not to be forgotten the great icons about the Venetian way of trade written by Mr. William Shakespeare “ The Merchan of ……………Venice – obviously !!