What’s the title of the story or the chapter?
The correct answer is option d: merchants
In grammar rules, an antecedent can be identified in a sentence because it is later replaced by a pronoun. An antecedent also refers in a sentence to something that happened in the past.
In the sentence provided as an example, the Venetian 'merchants' is the noun that is later replaced by its respective pronoun (theirs). The verb brought also tells us it was something that happened in the past.
To find the theme, you look for the main idea or topic.
People give more detail im not going to repeat me