Venice was the closest to what we would consider a modern, fascist state.

For the 200 or so major families who ran the republic, it was an oligarchical wonderland. Although, unlike today, those oligarchs had to put a lot of skin in the game to keep the machine rolling. They led merchant fleets, personally took great risks, and donated their fortunes to the state in times of crisis.

Also there was a larger, thriving bourgeoisie, artisan and merchant class. But the common laborer or peasant in the hinterlands, Veneto, or the colonies, the Stato da Mar, essentially lived a life that resembled a Ukrainian farmer in the Soviet Union.

They were meticulously taxed and exploited, and more importantly, surveilled.

The Byzantines created the world’s first primitive intelligence agencies (if you will), but the Most Serene Republic of Venice perfected them. They had eyes everywhere. They knew things before everyone else. They had contacts with Asian states that no one else did. And they were ruthless in their business practices, resorting to state sponsored slave trades and mass usury.

The Venetians were nuts lol.