the golden horde and the black sea 207
principal Genoese claim against the Jochids, the independence of caffa.257
the two parties also agreed that during the year of the treaty’s validity,
neither party would conclude a separate peace with Janibek or trade in
his empire.258
this latter clause very clearly expresses the allies’ determination to
institute the feared devetum, the trade boycott, against the Golden horde.
Serious cracks in the alliance nevertheless became clear once the treaty
began to be enforced. the Genoese interpretation of the clause forbid-
ding Italian merchants to trade in the Jochid state was that caffa, being
a Genoese possession under the doge, was not subject to the embargo.
the Venetian took quite the opposite view, based on the common-sense
approach that if they were to attain their aim, wear down the economy
and bring the khan back to negotiations, the sanctions had to be total:
thus caffa could not break the blockade.259 the alliance was undermined
from the start by mutual distrust, and such disagreements inevitably led
to crisis: seeing themselves disadvantaged by the Genoese version of com-
mercial embargo, the Venetian envoys argued vehemently against their
allies’ legal claim to govern the city, although a few months earlier, in
the treaty of June 1344, they had engaged to support their partners’ posi-
tion in any future negotiations with the Mongols on this bitterly disputed
matter.
257 DVL, I, p. 282: Et si dictus dominus imperator [= Janibek] uel ipsius barones requir-
erent ambaxatores Ianuenses, uel eis aliquam questionem mouerent seu facerent de Caffa,
quod illud eidem domino imperatori restituerent, tunc ambaxatores predictorum domino-
rum Venetorum fauorabiles esse debeant dictis dominis Ianuensibus iuxta ipsorum posse,
quod locus predictus remaneat et conseruetur in manu Ianuensium predictorum. Et si dic-
tus dominus imperator et sui barones uellent omnino habere locum predictum ante aliquam
compositionem uel concordium per partes fiendam, tunc et in caso predicto non possit fieri
aliqua compositio siue tractatus concordij cum imperatore predicto, donec terminus uel com-
positionis facte inter partes predictas durabit et manebit.
258 Ibid., p. 283: [.. .] neutra [.. .] possit seu debeat negociari, mercari seu contractum
inire per se nec per alios in imperio predicti domini imperatoris Ianibech.
259 the Venetian envoys complained of frequent Genoese violations, when they traded
with the Mongols either openly or on the quiet, and wrote to their doge in october 1344
to draw attention to the political repercussions of such actions, citing the khodjas of
Solkhat: Frater Petrus redivit Caffa, qui [.. .] dixit quomodo in Sorgati per multos coça fuit
dictum ei et similiter publice dicebatur per omnes quod, si non fuissent et essent mercationes
que facte sunt et que fiunt, concordium inter dominum Imperatorem Çanibec et Cristianos a
modo factum esset, mirando multum de tantis sapientissimis viris qui sunt in Caffa quoniam
ipsi non prohibebant quod dicte mercaciones non fierent ad hoc ut ista facta finem caper-
ent (Morozza della rocca, “Notizie,” pp. 290–292; for more on the illicit commerce, ibid.,
pp. 279, 281).