the golden horde and the black sea 151
Byzantine emperor Michael VIII palaiologos on 13th March 1261, and took
effect in summer of the same year when the Byzantines retook constan-
tinople and brought an end to the Latin empire.27
In two simultaneous and symmetrical processes, the Mongols of per-
sia shut the Golden horde out of the profits of Near and Middle eastern
trade, and the Venetians did the same to the Genoese. thwarted, both
powers were pushed toward the Black Sea. It was inevitable that they
should meet there, and their decision to work together was based on con-
vergent interests and the complementary means which the land-based
and maritime powers could command. this alliance would form the basis
of Jochid-Genoese relations, which over time would withstand not just the
ups and downs, the highs and lows inherent in such cooperation, but also
all external attacks, above all those from the Venetian republic.
the Volga khans’ attitude to the Genoese was decisively influenced by
their involvement in the Sarai-cairo-tabriz triangle, as indeed was the
whole of the khans’ Black Sea policy.28 Similarly, the Ligurian merchants’
conduct toward their Mongol trading partners on the steppe was deter-
mined by the merchants’ position on the shores of the fertile crescent,
the Levantine ports par excellence.
the earliest example illustrating this close interrelation has just been
invoked: pushed from acre in 1258, the Genoese weighed anchor for the
Black Sea, where they arrived in 1261. equally clear, and equally well
accepted in the historiography, is the Venetian response when the Mam-
luks conquered acre in turn in 1291, and they too sought to recoup their
losses in the Black Sea.29
historians have however overlooked another episode which can cer-
tainly be included under the same heading, possibly because its documen-
tary traces are both more scattered and more exiguous. this is the mass
exodus of the Genoese from cilician armenia, once the kingdom became
a Mamluk vassal in 1285 and conditions for trade in this bridgehead to
the Silk road and the spice route deteriorated so drastically. the Genoese
resigned themselves to the situation in 1290, having fought and lost a war
against cairo.30
27 cf. the extensive bibliography on the question given by Balard, Romanie, I, p. 42
note 99.
28 See chapters 3.3.1, 3.3.2.
29 See chapter 4.2.2.
30 See chapters 3.2, 3.4.2.