A monopoly on the ferry, coffee and eels

1688–1715 Probable

Under Venice, transport between Nafplio and the mills was a state concession. The leaseholder had the sole right to carry people and goods by sea between Nafplio and the mills of Kiveri, to bring grain to the mills and flour back, to sell coffee and food at the mills of Kiveri and of Argos, and to catch eels from Kiveri to the Mavra Litharia. Anyone waiting at the mills could thus already get a cup of coffee.

Note: The exact year of the concession is not given in the published summaries; it falls within the Venetian period.

Where

The water mills, Nafplio, The pier and harbour

Threads

Harbour and pier, Water and mills, Industry and trade

Certainty

Probable likely, but not fully proven

Sources

• Κ. Ντόκος – Γ. Παναγόπουλος, Το βενετικό κτηματολόγιο της Βοστίτσας, Athens 1993, p. XIV n. 6
• Κ. Ντόκος, «Κιβέρι – Μύλοι – Σκαφιδάκι», Αργειακή Γη 2 (2004), σ. 118–130 Open (opens in a new tab)
• Α. Πανοπούλου, «Το territorio του Ναυπλίου: η διαχείριση των αγροτικών και των φυσικών πόρων (τέλη 17ου – αρχές 18ου αι.)», Ναυπλιακά Ανάλεκτα IX (2017), p. 363

Also in this period

1. 1687–1714

   The Venetians expand the mills

   After the Peloponnese came under Venice in 1687, the Venetians greatly expanded the mills of Lerna. They built connected vaulted granaries, fitted new grinding machinery and surrounded the complex with a stone dam with…

   ProbableWater and millsIndustry and trade

2. 10 July 1694

   A Venetian field camp 'at the Mills of Argos'

   On 10 July 1694 the Venetian commander-in-chief in the Morea, Marino Michiel, dated a dispatch to the Senate 'from the camp at the Mills of Argos'. Venetian and French writers used that name both for Kefalari near Argos…

   DisputedWar and occupationWater and mills

3. 1698

   A water-driven gunpowder workshop

   In 1698, according to the Ephorate of Antiquities, the Venetians added a gunpowder workshop to the mills, driven by the water of the springs. How long it worked is not known.

   ProbableIndustry and tradeWater and mills

4. 1700

   Grain by boat, flour back to Nafplio

   In his introduction to the Venetian cadastre of Argos, the engineer Francesco Vandeyk describes a castle on a high hill near the sea, called Anasiri, or by many 'Old Argos' or 'Helen's castle'. Below it, he writes, water…

   ProvenWater and millsHarbour and pierIndustry and trade