Giacomo Foscarini was sent to Candia in 1574 with the assignment of re-organising the Kingdom. He was given unprecedented authority, and filled an extremely wide range of juridical positions- he was named not only Provveditore Generale , but Mayor and Inquisitor as well. Foscarini was certainly one of the most distinguished figures in Venetian political life c. 1520-1600. He was a 'partito dei vecchi'  sympathiser with Spanish leanings, and a man of conservative background and ideas, as evinced by his approach, when serving as 'Provveditor sopra la fabbrica' ('Building Administrator'), to the controversy regarding construction of the residence of the Procurator  and the Rialto bridge. His political career outside Venice was a series of successes. He was podestà  of Rovigo and Verona, then Provveditore Generale in Dalmatia, and later, in 1572, General Sea Captain . During his assignment in Candia  he set forth very clear objectives, which included 'excellent laws, grand orders, salutary statutes'¹. These took the form of vast agrarian reform based on increased wheat cultivation and improved oil quality, which were to make Candia 'another Puglia'.

Footnotes:
1 'ottime leggi, vastissimi ordini, saluberrimi statuti'