214 chapter four
remind us of the depreciating and spoiling wares which Özbek found at
the beginning of his reign as a result of toqta’s anti-Genoese policy, just
as toqta’s policy reminds us of Janibek’s.
More far-reaching were the external repercussions when Jochid exports
were choked off: Byzantium suffered an acute shortage of both grain and
salt fish, while the price of silk and spices doubled in the West.275
the interruption to commerce also caused problems for inhabitants of
the horde. their losses were so great that already in the autumn of 1344
the merchants and ‘all the tartar people’ did not hold back from protest-
ing loudly against the war,276 an audacity which was all the more remark-
able since the whole world knew that the war had been begun by the
khan, their absolute overlord.
though this only sheds light on losses by private persons, the report
gives some idea of the scale of the losses which the treasury at Sarai must
also have incurred. after five years of war, Janibek found that his situ-
ation offered no hope of a military solution and that he was economi-
cally exhausted: the Jochid government was of course dependent on trade
revenues.277 In spring 1347 he resigned himself to a peace without honour
with the Genoese, whereby he would—however tacitly—recognise their
sovereignty in caffa.
the same need to renew trade also forced the khan to open negotia-
tions with the Venetians at the same time: by May 1347 at the latest, they
again had the right to trade at tana,278 although the charter confirming
this was not granted until December.279
p. 285: De furmentum, per illud quod sentimus, satis est in istis partibus; precium aliquod
non potest nominari quia bandum est positum per Imperatorem de persona et havere quod
aliquis non audeat ipsum extraere; p. 286: In Horgaçi [= urgench] si à una gran quantitadhe
de speçie et sedha.
275 Gregoras/Schopen, II, pp. 683, 686, heyd, Histoire, II, p. 188, Brătianu, “contribu-
tions,” pp. 646–647 (for a similar situation in 1268: Brătianu, “Question,” Nystazopoulou-
pélékidis, Venise, p. 31).
276 returning to caffa that autumn, the franciscan petrus told the Venetian proprio
suo ore qualiter omnes mercatores de Sorgati et omnis populus multum dexiderat habere
pacem et similiter populus Tartarorum habere pacem dexiderat, et similiter omnes dicunt
non in oculto sed pallam ex incomoditate quam suferunt (Morozzo della rocca, “Notizie,”
pp. 277–278).
277 See chapter 1.2.2.
278 a merchant from candia writes on 16th May 1347: La pacie de la Tana è fatta e
molti navi so’ andate dentro (Morozzo della rocca, “Notizie,” p. 274); cf. papacostea, “tana,”
p. 208.
279 DVL, I, pp. 311–313; the charter refers to the grants of 1332 and 1342, and the only
significant difference is in the levying of customs duty, which has been raised from 3% to