The Mongols and the Black Sea Trade in the 13th and 14th Centuries

the golden horde and the black sea 145

1243; the immediate consequences were the creation of the Golden horde

and the extension of Mongol hegemony into South-east europe and the

Near and Middle east.14

these changes had profound consequences for the fate of the Black

Sea peoples, even for those who remained beyond the conquerors’ direct

control, and the whole Black Sea balance of power was shifted. William

of rubruck gives a clear and faithful account of the state of affairs in 1253,

and has the merit of recording each case in its relation to the chinggisid

central powers, whether this was direct rule, acknowledgement of hege-

mony or autonomy. a series of remarks on trade completes his tour of the

Black Sea. the most interesting information that the franciscan records

is as follows:

... around the middle there are two spits of land, one in the North and the

other in the South. (the one in the South is called Sinopolis and is a fortress

and harbour belonging to the Sultan of turchia; that to the North is a ter-

ritory which is nowadays called Gasaria by the Latins, while to the Greeks

who live there along the sea coast it is known as cassaria—that is, caesarea.

there are other promontories jutting out into the sea Southwards, in the

direction of Sinopolis. from Sinopolis to cassaria it is three hundred miles.)

So it is seven hundred miles from these [two] points heading diagonally [in

longum et latum] towards constantinople, and seven hundred going east-

wards, to Iberia—that is, the territory of Georgia. [.. .]

In the middle on the South side—at the apex, as it were—lies a city

called Soldaia, which looks across towards Sinopolis, and there land all the

merchants who come from turkia and wish to visit the Northern regions, as

also those who come from the opposite direction, from russia and the North

and wish to cross over to turkia. those latter carry squirrel and miniver

[varium et grisium] and other valuable furs; the others bring lengths of cot-

ton or wambasium, 8 silk cloth and fragrant spices. and on the eastern side

of this territory lies a city called Matrica, where the river tanais flows down

into the Sea of pontus through an estuary twelve miles wide.

Before this river enters the Sea of pontus, it has formed to the North a

sea which is seven hundred miles in length and and nowhere reaches a

depth of more than six paces. for this reason large vessels do not enter it,

the merchants from constantinople landing at the aforesaid city of Matrica

and sending their boats as far as the river tanais in order to buy dried fish,

namely sturgeon, shad, eel-pout and other fish in vast quantities. [.. .]

Beyond that estuary is Ziquia, which is not subject to the tartars, and

further east the Sueni and the Iberi, who are not subject to them. Next, to

the South, lies trebizond, which has its own lord, named Guido, of the fam-

ily of the emperors of constantinople, and he is subject to the tartars. Next

14 See chapter 2.1.2.