116 chapter three
brought out. it is a unique case in Black sea political history, for either the
persian or the cuman mongol state. in 1290, arghun extended his protec-
tion to the Black sea by paying for a warship, armed and commanded by
the genoese vivaldo lavaggio, to patrol for pirates in these waters.239
this last instance of cooperation between the ilkhan arghun and the
genoese marks the beginning of a new era, when new horizons were
opened up, of great importance for long-distance trade in general and for
the Black sea trade especially.
the genoese government signed a treaty with the sultan of cairo in
may 1290, recognising ipso facto the economic subjugation of the cili-
cian kingdom by the mamluk dictat of 1285.240 the genoese colonists in
cilicia chose to leave because of the many taxes imposed on the traffic
of goods in the kingdom to meet the new overlords’ demands,241 more
perhaps than because of the permanent insecurity.242 how grievous these
taxes were may be judged from the reaction of the venetian merchants,
who stubbornly continued to trade in armenia after it had fallen to the
mamluks. although the serenissima, like genoa, benefitted from “most
favoured nation” status,243 the new trading measures introduced by
leon v led them to an uprising by the merchants in the first years of the
fourteenth century.244
239 Brătianu, Actes, pp. 271–272; Brătianu, Recherches, p. 257, mentions pietro di Brai-
na’s diplomatic mission which set out from caffa at the same time for arghun’s court (cf.
papacostea, “gênes,” p. 217).
240 the annual tribute was fixed at the enormous sum of 1,000,000 dirhems, to which
was to be added half of all the incomes of the saltworks and the customs receipts at ayas
and portella (heyd, Histoire, ii, p. 89).
241 heyd, Histoire, ii, p. 91: “pour faire face à cette situation écrasante, les rois
d’arménie se virent à leur tour réduits à imposer lourdement les commerçants étrangers.
ils s’abstinrent de toucher aux traités qui abaissaient ou supprimaient les droits d’entrée et
de sortie, ils continuèrent même à accorder des diplômes conçus dans ce sens, mais il leur
restait comme resource les taxes des passages des cours d’eau, les taxes d’ancrage dans les
ports, les péages sur les routes, les taxes des marchés etc., dont les traités ne parlent pas
[.. .]. plus le tribut à payer à l’Égypte augmentait, plus les charges imposées au commerce
s’aggravaient.”
242 cf. heyd, Histoire, ii, p. 91, soranzo, Papato, pp. 310 ff.
243 complete exemption from customs duty both on imports and exports (cf. heyd,
Histoire, ii, p. 86).
244 ibid., p. 91: the uprising was led by the bailey, who led the crews of two galleys in
looting ayas of everything they could get their hands on; subsequent treaties between the
venetians and the king were likewise focused on customs taxes and imposts. the same
situation led James ii of aragon to pressure hethum ii in 1297 to respect the terms of a
privilege granted to catalan merchants by his father, leon ii, who died in 1289 (marinesco,
Catalogne, pp. 20–23).