Veneziano Estate

Above: Seal of the Veneziano Estate Bottom: Banner of the Veneziano Estate

The **Veneziano Estate**, also known officially though more rarely as the **Veneziano Corpus**, is the general term used for the various Lauch merchants' guilds and businesses which had either been founded under or acquired by the Veneziano Estate of the Kingdom of Lauchette. As of 50 CE, the Veneziano Estate has rooted itself into Lauchette's precious materials and luxuries markets, as well as a reputable provider of premium financial services, using their strong domestic position to push forward efforts to expand their markets both at home and overseas. This has not only led to the Veneziano Estate's more recent debut into the far northern markets, but also various spice-related operations among the outlying isles of Lauchette, which has proven to be a great boon in their recent profits.

## History

### Early History

The Veneziano Estate holds its roots as a family of literate lawmakers and skilled money changers, thriving greatly upon the early days of the Lauch Merchant Republic as each of their services- particularly the money changers- proved rather fruitful for the nation's formative years. It would be during this time that the Veneziano Estate's wealth would grow, leading to the formation of the **Avreaux Corpus**, the earliest guild to begin within the Veneziano Estate under Cardinale Ewald van Veneziano, which would go on to serve as the stepping stone to the Estate's future prosperity.

By the time of the rise of Lauchette's nobility, the Veneziano Estate itself chose to remain complacent amid the winds of change, much to their own chagrin; however, numerous long-time partners of the Avreaux Corpus, viewing this as a show of weakness, actively fought against the nobility, effectively beginning internal strife within the Corpus as they took up arms in a dire effort to fight against the nobles' takeover. This era would be one marked by conflict and loss for the Estate, as numerous talented men who once worked by its side would be lost in the fruitless struggle against the nobility, the Estate unable to sway them otherwise, and their businesses ruined by the effects of such strife. Nonetheless, the Estate's cooperation in this instance would ultimately prove vital to its survival among the establishment of the Kingdom.

### Growth

Following the rise of the Kingdom of Lauchette, the Estate found a ripe opportunity among the corpses of other merchants' guilds and businesses. An immediate race to fill in any and all vacuums that was left by the crushed merchants was made, essentially taking on the ruins of its previous partners, and even competitors, and effectively resurrecting them under the direct control and colors of the Veneziano Estate itself. It would be at this time that the Estate's services and products would spread on to the Lauch capital, where it now provided a variety of services and products to a far wider audience within the Kingdom.

Learning from the losses they had encountered in such strife during the days of the loosely connected Avreaux Corpus, the Veneziano Estate ensured they would now have a far tighter grip and influence among the businesses they acquired and operated with, effectively turning their guilds and mutual agreements into something more akin to ownership stakes and direct holdings of the Estate.

Through much of Lauchette's strife and tribulations, the Estate remained largely silent, and out of the way; not much is particularly known of their ongoings at this time. Its heavy diversification in the Lauch markets in the years of the Kingdom, however, would prove beneficial, particularly as the nobles' punishing taxes began to wear on much of the merchant caste. The Estate would suffer once more, though, as international relations broke down on the eve of the War of the Daggers, and trade restrictions enforced upon them, snuffing out early attempts at an international expansion.

### Present Day

With peace returning to the Hales, the Veneziano Estate found itself standing before a great opportunity. By this point, having cemented itself within Lauchette as a grand conglomeration of guilds dabbling in the affairs of resources, luxury consumables and materials, and its time-revered financial services, the Estate under the Majority Executive Venceslao Justus Veneziano has emphasized a pure focus on rapid expansion into the latest untapped markets, sending numerous prospective traders and explorers to claim any opportunity before them in the name of the Estate.

Most recently, such efforts have led to the breakthrough of newly-established access into much of the Hales' markets, paired with the introduction of spice as the latest in the Estate's long line of products. In conjunction (and partial, inter-familial competition) with that of the expansions into the Hales, explorers led under the Veneziano name continue on into the far western reaches just beyond the Lauch Isles, embarking upon exploratory operations in an effort to capitalize upon potential spices among the island chains. While these efforts have not yet reached a definitive, known conclusion, mentions of wealth, adventure, and debauchery follow this seafaring side of the Estate. Such affairs have not gone unchallenged, though, with the Veneziano Estate's efforts to dominate and secure its own prospects within and beyond the western Isles finding them at odds and at a great conflict of interest with other trading companies of the Kingdom of Lauchette, at times even leading to outright battles at sea in order to secure valued interests and stakes in vital regions.

## Structure

Despite its commonly used name, the Veneziano Estate by 50 CE is less representative of an Estate itself, and is more a wide-reaching conglomeration of various financiers, merchants, and traders, overseeing similarly expansive networks of ownership and interests beneath that of the Majority Executive. These high-profile members of the Estate, and typically overseers of the vast majority of its affairs, are known as the Board of Vice-Executives, composed largely of family members and high-profile investors.

While nepotism is strong and familial ties are favored among the upper echelons, such as the Board, a vast majority of the Estate's body are not necessarily Venezianos themselves; indeed, the greatest composition of the Estate are the numerous clerks, soldiers and laborers signed off under their subsidiaries and guilds, themselves considered members of the Estate so much as their loyalty, profits, and employment contracts remain firm. Even with familial nepotism within the higher management aside, a few non-Venezianos have managed to establish their own positions of influence through personal investments and ties, reaping its benefits just as a close blood relative would.