Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg Memorial Website
European Colonies on the Black Sea

Genoese Trade Fortresses at the Black Sea (c. 12th-14th centuries)

When Byzantium was restored by Michael VIII Palaeologus, a treaty was forged with the Genoese and Venetians (Treaty of Nymphaeum), that granted the Genoese monopolistic trading rights on the Black Sea. Furthermore, the Genoese were not required to pay any duties.

The Crimea was especially important as it was a major western terminus of the Silk Road. Thus, it provided access to Chinese and Indian goods such as silk, and spices. It also provided access to large numbers of captured slaves, many used as rowers on galleys, women for harems, and eventually, pradial labourers in sugar plantations throughout Europe.

By 1270 (nine years after the Treaty of Nymphaeum), Kaffa began to grow and had many "fondaci" or warehouses from which trade was possible. In 1296 Venice attacked Kaffa, and an armistice was established in which the Genoese, Venetians and the ulus (communities) of the Golden Horde coexisted. The Genoese were required to pay a duty to the Golden Horde at Kaffa.

By 1312, Venice had established a trading factory at Tana (formerly the exclusive trade demesne of Genoa), close to Serai Batu, the palace of the Golden Horde. With the permission of the Golden Horde, the Genoese, Venetians and Pisans settled in Soldaia.

The Genoese presence at the Black Sea included the following sites:

• Caffa or Kaffa (Greek name: Theodosia; Turkish name: Kefe; Crimea)
• Cembalo (Turkish name: Balaklava; Crimea)
• Cherson (Crimea)
• Genovez Kaya (Gurzuf, Crimea)
• Lusta (Crimea)
• Soldaia (Turkish name: Sudak; Crimea)

Genoese trading fortresses in the Crimea were under the supervision of the "Officium Gazariae". The �Officium Gazariae� or Imperium Gazariae, was named after the Khazar empire that existed prior to the Golden Horde, and may be viewed as Genoa's "Colonial Office". Latin, Greek and Cuman (Tatar) were the official languages. The trading fortresses included a diverse population of Greeks, Armenians, Jews, Karaites, and Muslems (Tatars). Each community of people was recognized as a "compagnie", governed by consules burgi. Typically, business transactions took place at the "loggia" (consul's residence).

The statutes of the Officium Gazariae contained various regulations that touched upon the slave trade. (For a look at some of the regulations, click here.)¹ The rules essentially forbade Genoese galleys from transporting gangs of slaves beyond the island of Chios, whether they came from the Byzantine Empire (including the Black Sea) or from Syria. However, the galleys could quite legally carry slaves from the north of the Black Sea to Alexandria. Thus, there remained a "great stream of slave trading between the Black Sea and Egypt" which was unhampered by the Officium Gazariae.² In fact, "any vessel sailing in ballast could carry any number of slaves anywhere at all."

Slaves were in fact, the primary "product" of the Genoese trading fortresses. One of the earliest known records of slaving in the Black Sea is the May 21, 1396 manifest of goods carried by a ship of Nicoloso Usodimare, which arrived in Genoa from the Byzantine Empire. The ship's cargo included "female and male slaves, 80 heads."³ The pool of slaves was drawn from Tatars, Circassians, Greeks, Albanians, Slavonians, and Serbs.⁴ Ships loaded with slaves were taxed by the Officium Provisionis Romanie, providing the "income of Saint Anthony." In the early 15th century, the slave trade from Caffa sent as many as 2,000 slaves a year to the Sultan of Cairo alone.

Note: There is continuity between the Genoese colonial structure and the Spanish colonial structure in the New World; the Spanish Casa de Contratación was an analog of the Genoese Officium Gazariae, and the Spanish Casa de Escravo was an analog of the Genoese Officium Provisionis Romanie. Continuity exists, as well, between the death rates of slaves transported by the Genoese (30%)⁵ and the death rates in the transatlantic slave trade (circa 30%), primarily due to the crowding and the extended duration of these long-distance trips. Additional continuity exists between the efforts of the Turks to end the Genoese trading of slaves to the Mamelukes⁶ (whom the Turks later attempted to conquer) and the English attempt to suppress the slave trade so as to ruin the Moslems at the Swahili coast, and to destroy the French sugar plantations.

As Genoese city states were created in places such as Kaffe (Kefe: Turkish), Soldaia (Sudak: Turkish), Cembalo (Balaklava: Turkish), and several other locations including Lusta (Alushta: Turkish), the entire area became known as Gothia. At the same time, the Greek state of Theodoro (with a coastal fortress at Kalamita) existed as a protectorate of the Golden Horde, nominally in control of the Crimea (Black Sea and the Sea of Azov). In 1380, the Golden Horde and Genoa agreed by treaty that Genoa could retain trading fortresses at Kaffa, Soldaia and Cembalo.

In late 1453, Constantinople fell a second time, the Ottomans in control of Isantbul, the bosporus at The Dardanelles, and traffic between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. By 1475, the Genoese Black Sea empire fell, with financial ruin to the Bank of Saint George. In 1482, the Genoese cities on the Crimean coast became the Turkish province of Kefe (Kuchuk-Stanbul: Turkish).

Genoa withdrew from the Levant and colonized the Atlantic under Iberian flags.⁷

Glossary: Genoa and the Crimea

References

For a complete list of the references used to create this section of the Esther M. Lederberg Memorial Website, click here.

For further information about Genoa's economic holdings in the Black Sea, see especially:

• Italian-Ukrainian initiative for Genoese fortifications on the Mediterranean and Black Sea UNESCO World Heritage List, Banca Carige "The Genoese in Crimea: A historical guide", Vyd-vo Gorobec, Kiev, 2009 (ISBN: 9789669694096)
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• Eizo Matsuki, "The Crimean Tatars and their Russian-Captive Slaves: an Aspect of Muscovite-Crimean Relations in the 16th and 17th Centuries", Mediterranean Studies Group at Hitotsubashi University
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• Jan M. Piskorski (Ed.), "Historiographical approaches to Medieval Colonization of East Central Europe: A comparative Analysis against the Background of other European Inter-ethnic Colonization Processes in the Middle Ages", Columbia Univ. Press, New york, 2002
.
• Charles Verlinden, "Medieval 'Slavers'", in David Herlihy, Robert S. Lopez and Vsevolod Slessarev (Eds.), "Economy, Society and Government in Medieval Italy", Kent State University Press, 1969, pp. 1-14.
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• Charles Verlinden, "The Beginnings of Modern Colonization: Eleven Essays with an Introduction", Cornell Univ. Press, 1970.

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