the golden horde and the black sea 157
caffa are documented in 1289–1290, and are a sign of good relations and
cooperation.56
It is well known that in the following century, the Genoese tried hard
to concentrate all of the Northern Black Sea trade in their port,57 and they
can hardly have made fewer efforts in this direction in the early stages;
nevertheless, comparative data from 1281 show that the new trade cen-
tre was not yet able to meet the needs even of the Genoese merchants
themselves. In the contracts notarised by Gabriele di predono at pera,
the volume of trade transacted at caffa amounts to only 1,476 hyperpyra,
compared to 3,453 in the other crimean ports and 3.421 at Vicina.58
however haphazard such evidence may be, it demonstrates the relative
insignificance of caffa (in volumetric terms) and the extent of Genoese
commercial activity on the peninsula—clear indications that the town
was still at an early stage, though later it would become the Northern
Black Sea’s main depot and entrepôt. the process of becoming such an
important commercial centre was closely bound up with the achievement
of independence.
Both processes were much accelerated from 1285, when the Genoese
took a much greater interest in the Black Sea in the wake of one of the
largest shifts in the history of eurasian trade.
4.2.2 Noghai and Toqta, the Genoese and Venetians: The Battle for the
Black Sea Trade
Increased Genoese mercantile activity after 1285 is well-attested and has
been remarked in the scholarship.59 the brothers Benedetto and Manuele
Zaccaria, major traders in their own right, extended their interests to
caffa in 1286, and within a few months the number of contracts notarised
in Genoa concerning the caffa trade had risen remarkably. as well as
these scattered documents, chance has preserved a more complete set of
sources, the registers of the notary Lamberto di Sambuceto, who worked
in the town in 1289–1290.60 even if we restrict our reading to the contracts
56 Ibid., I, p. 459 note 11.
57 cf. papacostea, “tana,” and below, chapters 4.2.3, 4.2.7.
58 cf. Brătianu, Mer Noire, p. 233, Balard, Romanie, II, p. 850.
59 Balard, Romanie, I, p. 118: “après 1285, les mentions de caffa dans les actes notariés
génois se multiplient.”
60 Brătianu, Actes, pp. 173–299, Sambuceto/Balard, passim.