198 chapter four
successors, Janibek and Berdibek, also appreciated how useful this rivalry
could be, and also blocked Genoa in her aims to impose herself as sole
political partner and commercial middleman for the Jochid state.
as well as this coercive function, which clearly achieved its end, settle-
ment of the Venetians at tana served another Jochid purpose: although
there is not enough documentary evidence to judge exactly how much
income the khan drew from their trade, there can be no doubt that they
stimulated trade volume on the Northern Black Sea coast and that this
helped the khan’s finances.
In dealing with the Italian merchants, their strengths and weaknesses,
Özbek showed a keen sense of the possible and the necessary. the same
is shown in the history of caffa, the most important result of his Black Sea
policy and a clear illustration of how external factors came to influence
decisions made in Sarai. caffa was a base line of the policy, as a barometer
of shifting circumstances sensitive to many different influences.
During Özbek’s long reign, the settlement’s history can be measured in
both economic and political terms. It was revived in 1313, and grew quickly
for a decade thanks to truly exceptional conditions created by Özbek,
imposed at least in part to meet the basic Golden horde need to reopen
Black Sea-Mediterranean trade after the stifling isolation which was toq-
ta’s legacy, but also to cultivate diplomatic contacts with the Mamluk ally.
When this latter prop of Jochid policy failed in 1322/3, the consequences
for the Genoese colony were most damaging: the khan partly cut off the
flow of trade to caffa and redirected it to the Venetians, in tana.
compared to the destructive actions of both his predecessor and
his successor, who used force against caffa in 1307/8 and then in 1343
onwards, Özbek’s Black Sea policy is characterised by a certain balance
and judiciousness highly profitable to the Golden horde’s economy. his
conduct was at the very least a contributing factor in the flourishing of the
ulus of Jochi at this peak of its development.225
the most convincing proof in this regard is furnished by his succes-
sor Janibek, who attacked the very foundations of his father’s Black Sea
policy. for a decade and a half he obstinately pursued a hostile policy,
mostly against Genoese caffa, which rebounded disastrously upon the
225 Despite differing ideological viewpoints, there is a prevailing consensus among
authors who have surveyed Golden horde history that this was the high point of its devel-
opment; cf. Spuler, Horde, pp. 87, 99, Grekov, Yakubovskiy, Orda, pp. 89–90, 262.