186 chapter four
having any rights in this sphere.173 as well as selling lands at auction, the
town relied for a large part of its income on rents, especially from Greeks
and armenians.174 By contrast, elsewhere on Jochid soil, for instance in
tana where they were considered “guests” just as the Venetians were, the
Genoese paid rent in their turn to Mongol functionaries.175
although it was deliberately kept quiet, Özbek’s concession to the
Genoese of 1313 was thus revealed by its material and institutional effects,
both immediately and over the course of time. the importance of the act
and its ramifications cannot be sufficiently emphasised.
first and foremost, we must acknowledge that the khan had taken an
irreversible step affecting both his own state’s Black Sea policy and the net-
work of commercial forces in and around the sea. for as long as Genoese
relations with the Golden horde were to last, caffa’s autonomy was never
destroyed, not even when challenged by force of arms, as by Janibek in
the mid-fourteenth century,176 or tacitly, though not formally, acknowl-
edged, as in the Mongol-Genoese treaties which toqtamïsh concluded
four decades later.177 further, this autonomy was consolidated inasmuch
as it became a corner-stone for Genoa’s supremacy on the Northern Black
Sea coast and at the mouths of the Danube. although Genoa’s aspira-
tions to monopolise trade in the region were never completely realised,178
caffa indisputably fulfilled its intended purpose, laid down by the earliest
ordinances of the office of Gazaria, of becoming principal regional depot
where wares were collected and redistributed.179
173 Balard, Romanie, I, p. 459.
174 Ibid., p. 204: introytus terraticorum. even monastic orders settled in the town had
to turn to the Genoese for their building needs; an illustrative example is that of the friar
franco of perugia, who founded a Dominican house there at pope Boniface VIII’s request:
Disponente aut Deo, venit in Chaffam terram que ad imperium pertinet Tartarorum, ibidem
locum recipiens a Ianuensibus sibi datum. Ecclesiam quoque edificavit (Loenertz, “Menego
Schiavo,” p. 67).
175 Nystazopoulou-pélékidis, Venise, p. 35 note 78.
176 cf. papacostea, “tana,” p. 211, and chapter 4.4.5 below.
177 Several clauses in these agreements reveal that toqtamïsh, like Özbek, was careful
not to reveal in writing that he had ceded territory; nevertheless, the phrasing shows that
the Mongol negotiators tacitly admitted caffa’s autonomy as a basis for discussion (cf.
Balard, Romanie, I, p. 458, ciocîltan, “restauraţia,” pp. 579–580, and chapter 4.4.7 below).
178 the most serious breach in their trade system was caused by the presence of their
Venetian rivals at tana, on the basis of the charter granted by Özbek in 1332 (cf. papa-
costea, “tana,” pp. 205 ff., ciocîltan, “Bürgerkrieg,” idem, “enigme,” pp. 9 ff.).
179 the drastic restrictions placed in 1316 on the republic’s citizens trading in Soldaia,
Solkhat or tana were intended to serve the same goal (Sauli, “Imposicio,” columns 379–
380, 382, 385, forcheri, Navi, pp. 19–21, heyd, Histoire, p. 171).