Throughout its history, Venice has been a great naval and commercial force thanks to its strategical position at the head of the Adriatic sea. Venice was created in the V century A.D., by refugees from a nothern Italy constantly in wars and invations.

The refugees settle in on an island that became Venezia. They started to build houses of wattle and daub, and anchor branches with stakes to protect the pilings from the action of the currents. They started to construct boats and began fishing.

They also dried sea water to extract salt, and suddenly the economy of Venice was started. By the year 548 A.D., Venice was already a powehouse controlling all the trades, import/export of the Adriatic Sea. By the IX century, Venice developed into a city state or one of the famous four "Repubblica Marinara".
They were the main commercial traders between Western Europe and the rest of the world. By the year 1104, the today Porta Magna or Venice Arsenal was born. After the Fourth Crusade, Venice became an imperial powerhouse, and had 36,000 sailors and 3,300 ships, controlling Mediterranean commerce.

At the end of the XVII century, Venice began to lose its commercial power to Portugal,and by the half of the XVIII century, it was already a major agricultural exporter and later that century became an important manufacturer centre.

Today's economy of Venice it's based mostly on tourism. The city's beautiful architecture, canals and other cultural and artistic heritage such as the Venetian Carnival and numerous film festivals, attract tourism from all over the world during throughout the year.

The island of Murano is famous for the production its particular and costly glass, mirrors and glass beeds that are exported around the world. Another Venetian artifact is lace and it is produced on the island of Burano.

The mainland areas in particular the towns of Mestre and Marghera, are an importan shipbuilding zone with other industrial facilities such as steelwork, foundries and chemical factories.