SOME REMARKS ON THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE HEART OF THE GOLDEN HORDE (14TH CENTURY) IN THE WAKE OF C. VERLINDEN'S RESEARCH

For decades the slave trade was very lucrative for the Italian merchants who travelled to the East. The formation of the Mongol Empire, and the economic and demo- graphic growth occurred in Europe, have contributed to the increase of both, the demand of slaves and the supply human merchandise. Trade increased with the simultaneous increase in the number of journeys of western merchants to the East. The creation of a structured trading system on the Black Sea coast has allowed Genoa and Venice to strengthen their trade relations with the dominant centers of power in loco: the Golden Horde of the Mongols and the Mamluks of Egypt. This article is a preliminary critical mapping of a larger project I’m working on, and which aims to explore the relationship between Italian commercial immigration and the slave trade in the Venetian settlement of Tana, situated in the mouth of the Don, and rep- resenting the easternmost outpost of all Latin Trading System in the East in the 13th and 14th centuries. Based on a solid historiographical tradition and the Venetian documentary sources, I’m trying to restore the perception of a slave in the unique context of the Golden Horde, where the western urban mercantile and the eastern nomadic factors came into contact. While many of the conclusions of this research are still to be confirmed, a primary investigation has shown that slaves were not only the primary and most profitable resource for Italian merchants, but also the most direct and effective means to penetrate and understand an ethnic and culturally stranger context.