the disintegration of the empire 125
in the absence of any more direct information, we might suppose that
they paid the usual taxes, recorded in pegolotti’s manual.287
We have much better information on the customs at trebizond,288
unavoidable for all those going to or coming from the ilkhanate.289 the
genoese did not hesitate to resort to violence on two occasions—in 1304
and 1313–1314—to force the emperor alexios ii to grant them complete
exemption from customs, and a strip of land in the capital city as well,
where they could settle in complete freedom. While the latter demand
was satisfactorily settled in the peace negotiated after the first outbreak
(1304), their principal demand to be allowed to transport and sell their
goods tax-free was rejected, with justified obduracy, on both occasions,
and the genoese reconciled themselves to paying the trebizond taxes.290
the genoese merchants were just as headstrong at the other end of
the route in ormuz, where another, no less important, problem awaited
them, of an entirely different sort. this was the sea voyage to a world
which was as enticing as it was uncertain and perilous. What the genoese
actually did in the southern seas, where and how they arrived in india and
china, is one of the least-known chapters in the history of the levantine
trade: the long-distance merchant’s habitual discretion on the secret of
where he sourced his goods seems in this case to have been even more
strictly observed, understandable enough when we consider how distant
and inaccessible were the lands in question. What little light is shed on
287 pegolotti/evans, pp. 27–28: Diritto die mercantia che si paga a Torissi. Di ciò
comperi o vendi al peso di Torissi paghi bisanti 5 meno 1/2 aspro di camunoca per centinaio.
Drapperia di lana e tele e pellicerie e cimbelotti e stagno e di ciascuna cosa che si vende a
minuto e a misura si paga di camunoca 4 meno 1/3 per centinaio. E di senseraggio si paga
uno mezzo per centinaio e piue quello che ti piace de fare cortesia al sensale. Argento e perle
sono franche, che non pagano tamenga nè all’entrare nè all’uscire.
288 ibid., p. 31: Diritto die mercantia che si paga a trabisonda. Chi porta mercatantia
in Trabisonda o vendela nella terra a paesano, sì paga allo ’mperatore de Trabisonda 3 per
centenaio, ma se la vendesse a genovesi o altre genti latine non paga niente. E se quella mer-
catantia che porti in Trabisonda non la vuogli vendere in Trabisonda e vuollitene andare con
essa a Torisi o vero mandarlavi, sì paghi al detto imperadore aspri 28 per soma e anche aspri 1
per soma al consolo. E chi viene di Torisi a Trebisonda con mercatantia si paga in Trabisonda
aspri 15 per soma tanto di spetie come d’ogn’altra mercatantia tale chente ell’ene, aspri 14 allo
’mperatore e aspri 1 al consolo.
289 Based on somewhat uncertain information, Brătianu, Recherches, p. 258 note 3, won-
ders whether there was a “mongol corridor” along by Batumi, which allowed the ilkhanate
direct access to the Black sea; if any such convenient route ever existed, it would certainly
have been used to avoid the customs of the empire of trebizond.
290 for the most detailed and insightful analysis of the sources, see Karpov, Impero,
pp. 143–150, which convincingly arranges the primary material into an intelligible series
of events.