130 chapter three
made use in 1320.306 in that year they obtained a similar privilege from
the last ilkhan, abū sa‛īd, to trade in persia.307 here they would make
their presence felt in the next two decades with several run-ins with the
authorities.308
When the ilkhan Öljeitü tried to win the merchants over to his cause
with exceptional privileges, they resisted re-establishing their trade ties
with persia: this is all the more curious since a little while before, from
1294 to 1299, they had been engaged in a life-or-death struggle with the
genoese for exactly the prize of the Black sea link to the great chinggisid
trade routes. the matter become even more puzzling once we see that it
was not an isolated case, and that the venetians resisted such offers for
about twenty years.
the above-mentioned war provides one possible explanation for such a
long abstention: the finger seems to point to genoa, which had so fiercely
defended its pre-eminence in the Black sea. this suspicion is strength-
ened by the extraordinary tenacity with which genoa tried to prevent the
venetians from taking any share in the golden horde trade in the four-
teenth century, in everything from trifling local tussles to grand general
engagements.309 compared to the much better-documented and more
thoroughly investigated situation to the north of the Black sea, venetian
reticence toward the ilkhanate shows itself to have been an attitude not
chosen freely but rather imposed by their adversaries. it is all the more
unusual after they lost their principle position in the levantine trade,
acre, in 1291. the ways in which the venetian-genoese rivalry played out
306 the document, published in DVL, i, pp. 122–124, emphasises that the venetians
enjoy the same conditions as the genoese, primarily concerning imperial taxes—generally
higher than in other cities of asia minor (Zakythinos, Chrysobulle, pp. 32, 54–61, Zachari-
adou, “trebizond,” p. 534)—and the right to establish a colony led by a bailey in their own
quarter of the capital, where they could govern themselves as they wished (heyd, Histoire,
ii, pp. 100–102, Brătianu, Recherches, p. 117, nystazopoulou-pélékidis, Venise, pp. 33–34,
Karpov, Impero, pp. 77–79).
307 the privilege (DVL, i, pp. 173–176) sets out in detail all the liberties granted by
the government: the venetians may go where they wish with their goods, without being
constrained to sell at staples or to pay supplementary taxes other than those established
by usanza antigua. these are not specified in abū sa‘īd’s privilege, but pegolotti/evans,
pp. 28–29, gives information on the number and variety of taxes to be paid in mongol
persia at just this time, where the ilkhan is called Bonsaet (cf. heyd, Histoire, ii, p. 102,
ashtor, History, pp. 265–266, petech, “marchands,” p. 568).
308 petech, “marchands,” pp. 568–569.
309 papacostea, “tana,” passim, teases out this basic theme and shows the variety of
means whereby the genoese strove to realise it (see also chapters 4.2.2, 4.2.3, 4.2.4, 4.2.5).