the disintegration of the empire 133
venetian fears were abundantly confirmed when they first ventured
onto the persian spice route, thanks to the trade privileges granted by
alexios ii in 1319 and by Öljeitü the following year.320
even their settlement in the quarter which the emperor had granted
them in trebizond led to violent reprisals from the genoese which, it
hardly need be said, had no legal basis. now that the ligurians found
that neither force of arms nor their diplomacy could keep the vene-
tians away from the regions which they wished to keep for themselves,
they turned to a new method to rid themselves of their rivals, spreading
rumours to stir up local dignitaries against the newcomers. this shadow
war was later notoriously effective in tana, and soon made the vene-
tians suspect in tabriz: in order to counter such tactics, the venetian
senate allocated a special fund with which to buy the neutrality of impe-
rial officials.321
it should be no surprise that the venetians did not have an easy time
of it in the ilkhanate either: the ilkhan’s privilege was granted at too high
a level to protect them entirely from local authorities, in a market domi-
nated by their genoese adversaries. Unlike the latter, who went about
their business in peace, the venetian colony in tabriz, attested in 1324,
was subjected to all sorts of harassment,322 so much so that the mem-
bers’ status became uncertain and had to be renegotiated by a go-between
from trebizond in 1332.323 the abuses continued until the collapse of
the ilkhanate, although from 1334 the venetians were able to obtain the
patronage of abū sa‛īd’s mother.324
given that their interests were so efficiently sabotaged in persia and
trebizond, despite the legal protection offered by the ilkhan and the
emperor, any voyage into the indian ocean, where the genoese were
untrammelled by any law, would be fatal from the outset. clearly, the
venetians never tackled this risk.325
320 in order to defend genoa’s interests in the region, the Officium Gazarie forbade the
republic’s merchants to accept foreigners in their caravans or their camps and lodgings
(forcheri, Navi, p. 17, sauli, “imposicio,” col. 347, Balard, Romanie, i, p. 140).
321 heyd, Histoire, ii, pp. 101–102, Karpov, Impero, p. 79. the genoese would behave
in exactly the same way when the venetians settled at tana some years later (see below
pp. 196 ff.).
322 petech, “marchands,” p. 568.
323 Brătianu, Les Vénitiens, pp. 44–45, Karpov, Impero, p. 80.
324 petech, “marchands,” p. 568.
325 see above, pp. 127 ff.