Flexibilité et diversification comme réponse au risque: les investissements du patriciat vénitien et de la « Terraferma » aux débuts de l’époque moderne

The aim of this paper is to show the strategies of the Venetian Patricians (and those from the Mainland) face to the risk. The diversifications of investments (in all the economic sectors, as agriculture, manufacture, trade, public and private finance) and the flexibility in the domestic and foreign markets were the result of a specific economic system where the economic actors refused the specialization in the economic activity. A reviewed version will be published in: Du fatalisme à l’exploitation du risque. Le risque et les économies méditerranéennes du Moyen Âge à nos jours , 11-13 mai 2006, à Rome, au colloque, IFAO, forthcoming, a cura di B. Marin