THE BALTICAND THE BLACK SEA IN MEDIEVALTRADE by MARIAN MALO WIST (WARSAW, POLAND)
The object of this paper is to give a short outlinc knowledge of the history of l3altic commerce. The of the history of Black Sea and Baltic trade during the literature on Black Sea trade is hardly less extensive: Middle Ages, and to examinethe reciprocalaction of W. Heyd's works are probably the rnost important,but thesetwo importanthistorical phen.omena. Considera- m,uchvaluable information is also given in the writings tions of space exclude the possibility of making an ex- of F. Bruun, Manfroni,C. Bratianuand Canale. The haustivestudy of the enormouscomplex oi problems periodicalpublications Atti della SocietdLigure di Sto- connectedwith the subject,and henceno atternptwill ria Patria ot Genoa, anclZapiski Odeskago, Obshestva, be macjeto deal with matterswhich do not appearto Istorii i Drevnostiei ( Records of the Historical and be ol primary importance. AntiquarianSociety of Odeosa),likewise contain material There is already a very copious literature dealing of great interest. A certain amount has been written rvith the historyof tradeon the Baltic.The outstanding concerningthe Black Sea by Polish authors,but econo- works are those of Daenelle, Schlfer and Rdrig, but riric history has so tar receivecilittle attention. Ku- there are many other German, Dutch and Scandinavian trzeba'sHandel Krakowa z Wschodem(Cracow's trade writers whose works merit attention. Arnongst the with the East), and the writings of D4browski, Kolan- Polish writers on the subject, Kutrzeba, Widajewicz, kowski, Halecki, Charewicz and G6rka are among the Wachowski and Koczy have done much to extend our more important works on this subject.
BALTICAND EUXINETRADE IN THE EARLYMIDDLE AGES
TRADE IN THE VIKING ERA The great inland waterway,swere used by the The iirst animated contacts between the Black Vikings vfte rpenetratedinto the heart of present-day Sea and the Baltic appeared in early medieval Russia and Ukraine, and reached the Black Sea. times and lasted more or less from the middle of the Scandinavianhistorians affirm that this advance to- 9th to the middle of the llth century. Of the many lvards the south-eastwas conductedacording to a set European peoples who endeavouredto establish com- plan directed by the rulers of Svealand. But this sup- mercial'relations between the Black Sea and the rest of position likewise appears to 'be highly problematical, Europe, the Vikings showed most enterprise and since it is improbable that the ru,lersof such a small energy. According to A. Bugge, and H. and A. Schfick, realm, and one constantly harrassedby warlike nelgh- there rvas an i6,portant mercantilecentre on the Baltic bours, could have developed such lar-reaching and as early as in the 8th century: this was Bjdrko (or comprehensiveplans. It is much more likely that Birca), situated on a small island in Lake lliilar, in various smalI companiesof warriors effected the con- Sweden. These investigatorssuppose that this trading questof the Russianand Ukrainianlanrds on their own settlementwas the point of issue ior the expeditions initiative; they proceeded along the most convenient ot the SwedishVikings to the south-east,and they lind routes,occupied the richer districts and iounded settle- supportfor their surmisein the namesof some settle- ments at the most important economic,strategical and ments in Finlanicland in the Ukraine, for there is a political points. It is, theretore,much more ,probable Bjdrkd on the Gulf of Finland and a Berezany at the that the internal logic of conquest rather than any mouth of the Dnieper. They take this aifinity as evi- previously conceivedplan, was the decisive factor at dence that Swedish Bjorko served as a rnodel tor the work in this case. organization set up by the Vikings, but this theory The chief inland line of communicationfronr the would not appear to be very well grounded. Baltic to the south led from the Culf ot Finland, along voL. ilt- No. t. iil. IANUAR|' 1937 THE BALT{C {N"D THE BLACK SE.{ 15-A{ED{EVAL rR.ADE the Neva and Lake Volkhov, to Novgorod, thenceto the barbarism and cut them off trom the sources oi their Dnieper,along that river to Kiev, and by land to the Byzantine civilization. Rostovtsev and Pokrovsky, Crimea and Kherson. There the Vikings embarked however, point to the influenceof other lactors. They and so reachedMiklagaard (the Great City), as the surmise that the trade of the Russian towns with the Vikings called Constantinople, which so strongly Near East had been chietly based on the products attracted them rvith its polver and fabulous riches. exacted as tribute from the subjected rural population, There was another route which branched off at Nov- and that the coun,tryhad, as a result, been so impover- gorod and ran to the Volga,, towards ltil ancl ished by nrany centuriesof this practice that trade was Bul'gar,thence by the Caspian Sea to Persia and the already dying out, in the 12th century, owing to the other Asiatic countries. The third route ran from iirsufticientsupply of goods. To-day it is ditficult to Novgorod to the sourcesoi the Don, and down that decidewhich of theseviews is more in accordancewith liver to the Sea oi Azov. the lacts: in any case,the point with which the present In time, such townships as Rostow and Kiev paper dealsis the declinein this trade as having been ivere founded by the Vikings, who forced the subjected the causeof a rupture in the economi.crelations between native populationto pay regulartribute in kind. Ac- the Baltic regionand the Greco-Byzantineand Turanian cording to Rostovtsev and Pokrovsky, the stocks of lands. This was of enornroussignificance, as from that merchandisethus accumulated served as the basis ot time the vaststretches oi easternEurope lost their great a lively barter trade with the surppliersof oriental pro- importanceto the economiclife oi the Middle Ages, and ciuce. In addition,however, goods of lvesternEuropean conrmercialintercourse between western Europe and and Baltic provenancewere transportedoverland and the Near East was,maintained through the intermediary disposedof in the East. The Norsemen kept northern oi quite other countriesand trade routes. Europe supplied with the produce of the East, as wit- ness the numerous articles of Byzantine and Arabian BALTIC TRADE IN THE IIth AND I2th CENTURIES origin lound in the Baltic region. The chief centresof ln the meantime,Iar-reaching changes also occu'r- this trade were Kiev, ltil and Bulgar, where Oreek, red on the Baltic. Bjorko was pillaged and burned to Arabian and Persian merchants traded with their Sla- the ground by the Norwegiansc. 1000; the old Swedish vonic and Scandinaviancolleagues; it was there thai emporium never recoveredirom the disasier, and the
THE FIANSA IN BALTIC TRADE unrestrictedtrade in all Poland and in Red Ruthertia, Visby, the capital ot Gottland, lvas undoubtedly which he had just annexed. Creat economicpossibili- the most im,portantmercantile centre on the Baltic in ties now awaited the burghers of Toruf : they aimed the first half of the 13th century, but this period ot consistently at the organization of commerce so that great prosperitywas not of long duration. Thanks to the produce of northern Europe could be exchangedlor the zealous support of the Counts of Saxony, Liibeck oriental goods brought in from the Crimea,then partial- began to assumegreater and greater i'mportance. The ly in the hands of the Genoesemerchants. Toruri's merchantsof l-iibeck had begun to trade with Gottland successin thisventure was, however,entirely dependent during the l2th century,and someof them evensettled on the attitudetaken up by Poland. on the island. A hun'dredyears later, the Baltic littoral ITALIAN SETTLEMENTS ON THE EUXINE was again inundatedby a wave of German immigration: Riga and many other towns in Livonia and Prussiawere The establishment ol a great Mongol em,pire founded;Danzig and Stockholmreceived large contin- stretching from the eastern frontier of Poland to the gents of Germaninhabitants; even distant Finland saw shores of the Pacific Ocean had an enormousinfluence the arrival of numbersof immigrants from northern upon the economic development oi the world. The Cermany. This tide oI immigration rvas cont]ucteclKhans maintainedmodel conditionsof law and order unc'lerthe aegis oi LLibeck, and Rtlrig considers that on the routes leading through their territories, and the processof settlementwas entirelysubordinated to so h,elpedto set up and stabilize direct economic the econornicinterests oi that city as the headquarters relations between Europe, Central Asia and the Far of the Han,seaticLeague. The new towns at f irst East. The Venetian and Genoese merchants had modelledtheir laws and organizationon thosecurrent in , traded far within the interior o,f the Tartar lands Liibeck; it was only Iater that Magdeburglaw gained as early as the 13th century, and the Khans extended the ascendanci',a changewhich was accompaniedby every lacility to the enterrprisingItalians, one oi whom a gladuai, but steadyenfeeblement of Liibeckinfluence was Marco Polo. The Crimea served as the gatewey on the Baltic. In contradistinctionto the great Italian for Europeantrade with Asia. Venetianshad journeyed City-states, Lubeck iailed to nraintain its hegemony to Soldaia,on the south coast oi the peninsula,during over the trading settlementsfounded by its citizens. the times of the Latin Empire. Cenoeseand Venetian Very soon after their foundation, the Prussian and merchantssettled at Tanais, a thriving commercial Livonian towns broke alvay and assumedindependent centreat the mouth of the Don. Somewhatlater the status,which they were able to do thanks largely to Pisa merchantsfounded Porto Pisano(Siniavka) on the the support given them by both the great German same river, but rather nearerthe Sea of Azov. knightly Orders. Controversyhas beenrile regardingthe beginninqs Towardsthe end of the 13thcentury, the Li.ibeckersof Genoesesettlement in the Crimea. Canale,basing strove to turn to accounttheir predominantposition on his work on the misleading assertions ol Bohush- the Baltic by penetratinginto the interior of eastern Sietshentsevich,stated that these settlementswere Europe. They secureda charter irom Ladislas the foundedduring the first Crusade. This was disprovect Short of Poland in 1298,whereby they were authorizetl by Heyd, who, on the basis of Byzantine source- to settle an'dtrade in Poland. They were presumably material, demonstratedthat Kafla (on the site of less interestedin these prerogativesthan in the pos- ancient Theoclosiaand of the mo.dernFeodosia) was sibility ot enteringinto economicrelations rvith Hun- founcledas late as 1266 on the strength oi a charter gary, who at that period exported copper. It is not granted to the Genoeseby Mangu-Khan. The result unlikelythat they also expecteclto establishconrmercial of this was that Genoa becameparamount in Crimean relationswith the Black Sea regions,rvhich were again trade, the more so since the Venetians had left the rising to importanceas centresof internationaltrade pensin.sulaa{ter the fall ot the Latin Empire. ,lt is true in the Near East. Which oi these objectivesthe Hanse- that the Venetian merchants returned to Tanais later atic League had most at heart, it is not possible to on, but their Genoeserivals had establishedthemselves determine, but in both cases the aitainment of transit too tirmly to lose their leading position in the Black rights through Poland was an essential condition ot Sea trade. Tanais initially played a most important success. rdle in trade with the East, since it was the terminal The Liibeckers soon abandoned this plan, how- point ol the direct route leading from Central Asia and ever, and the Torufi merchantsthen decided to adopt it. Cathay. The ltalians came to Tanais to buy oriental Casimir the Great of Poland granted them the right of goods (chiefly fabrios, silks, and spices), which were vOL. IIL No. l. [5J. JANUARY t9t7 THE BALTIC -ANDTHE BLACK SEA IN .\4EDIEVALTR,ADE then transportedby sea to Constantinople,Italy and Silesia and Toruri. The trade in oriental products and western Europe.According to Barbaro,I at least four tvoollens on the Kaifa, Cetatea Alba (Akkerman) and to six Venetian galleys came to Tanais every year, Lw6w route was primarily in the hands ot the apart lrom the Genoese merchantnten vrhich also Armenians,who'in time becamethe chiet tradersbe- touched at that port. Those who traded with Tanais trveenthe countriesoi the Black Sea and Lw6w. They primarily used nraritimecommunication; the overland encounteredthe rivalry of other nations (Poles, Lw6w route through Red Ruthenia and Poland to western and Crimean Jews, and Germans) but these could not Eurcrpeand Italy was mLrchless popular olving to the successfullycompete with them. There were several hazardsol travel. None the less,some of the Ruthenian reasonsfor this, but among the chief ones was that the and Polish towns, particularlyWlodzimierz Wolynski Polish and Prussian merchantswere hampered by the (VIadimir Vol_vnski)and Lw6w, owe their rapid devel- great struggle between Poland and the Teutonic Order. opmentin the middleof the 14thcentury to their trade It was the samefactor which inhibitedcommodity ex- r.r,iththe East. changebetween the Black Sea and the Baltic countries, There is much more informationto hand regarding although this had at first given every promise oi the Cenoesesettlements. Mention has already been lemarkabledeveltrpment. rrradeof l(affa. There were also trading posts at Tanais and Kafia were both sacked and destroyed Constantinopleand at Pera,so that the Cenoesecould by Tamerlanein 1391. The latterwas soonrebuilt and at one time dream of attaining hegemony over the regained its former significance,but the prosperity of whole of the Black Sea trade. They gainecla toothold Tanais never returned. The invasionsevered its con- in many importantports on the Black Sea,and strove tacts with the East, becausethe ancient trade roLlte to conccntratethe trade bet,'veenthe easternand the from the Don countrythrough Turkestan to Cathaywas 'f rvesternworlcl in their own handsas nritldlcmen.This no longer available. his was, of cou,rse,a blow rvasquite a feasibleplan, as most of the Asiaticexports for Kaffa too, but the merchantsof that town had long -frabzon to Europe passed through Astrakhan and the Crimea, , ago been buying oriental goods in and in and not via Asia Minor and Syria as was the case in other ports on the south coast of the Black Sea. Never- the l5th century. Tanais was, of course, a danger to theless the chief commercial centres in trade with the these iar-reachingplans, but the Venetian mclchants East were shiitedto Syria and Alexandria;Tanais was therewere forcedto sharetheir authorityand influence descrtedand Kaffa had to be contentwith the rdle oi r.vith the Genoese traders. Kaffa became an im- the chief supplier of slaves and of Crimean agriculfural portant city inhabited by a cosnlopolitan population produce. chiefly composedof Italians,Creeks, Armeniansand Tartars. Amongsi this medley of peoplesihere were THE STRUCGLE FOR ACCESS rnany Poles, Rutheniansancl Wallachians rvho served TO THE BLACK SEA in the ad- in the garrisonor occupied minor posts The great develo,pmentoi the Black Sea trarje in z rurinistration. the l3th and 14th centuriesattractecl the attentionof Kafla was essentiallya commercialcentre. Slaves the merchantsof northern Europe and encouragedthenr 'the rvcre exported thence to Egypt and to Italy, and to make expeditionsto landsof Tartary'. Mention although Constantinoplewas the chiet market for has already been of Li.ibeck's unsuccessfulattem,pt fooclstuffs, Crimean some corn and fish were also sent to securepassage through Poland to Hungary and the to ltaly. Silks,spices and otheroriental goods occupied East. The Toruri merchantshad much better chances a subordinateposition in Genoese export frorn the since,thanks to the supportof Casimirthe Great, they The maritinte, Crimea. trade was almost exclusively establishedcontact with Lw6w and WlodzimierzWo- but the land route to Italy (through the Ukraine, iynski, '"vhence they had an open way to Tanais Poland, Silesia,Bohemia an.dAustria) was also utilized and Katfa. But Casimir soon realizedhow his revenues to some extent, and this helped to develop the lvould grorv and how much his subjectswould gain it economiclife of the transit countries,and hence of Polish merchantscould becomethe only middlenen in Poland,too. The Arnteniansshowecl the greatestenter- trade beiween the Baliic and the Black Sea. The King prise in this overland trade; many of thenr lived in inaugLrrateda new policy in 1352,his intentionbeing Kaffa, Lwolv and in a number of other south-eastern to transform Cracow and, to some extent, Lwow, into Europeancities. They brought silk and spicesto Lw6w great mercantile centres serving both East and West. chiefly from Kaffa,Trabzon(Trebizond) and Sinop.Their He forbade{oreigners to use the trade routes passing chief purchases in Lwow were English, Flemish and through his realm to Hungary and the Black Sea, and Oerman woollens,sold there by merchantsirom Poland, when the Breslaumerchants complained. he stated that
r Ramusio: Navigationi e Viaggi, Vol. ll, p. 97 40 M. MALOWIST BALTIC AND SCANDINAVIAN COUNTRIES he had con'queredRuthenia solely in order to enable ties direct lrom the Baltic countries and re-exported his subjectsto benefit by the route leading through oriental goods to that region. This was a very serious the newly annexedterritory. From that tinte onlvards, blow to the direct trade between the Baltic an'd the only the merchants of Cracow and Llv6rv were to Black Sea, the more so since the English and Dutch import goods from Tartary and sell them to toreign satisfiedtheir needs in the way of oriental goods in tradersvisiting thesecities, or export them to western Bruges,Antrverp, Amsterdam and London,which were countries. in turn kept supplied by the Italian merchants, the This ambitiousplan tailed,holvever, and the King western Europeanmerchant-mariners prelerring not to iinailyabandoned it in 1354,the more willinglysince risk the inconvenientand costly voyage to the Crimea. the Prussianmerchants had securedthe aid of the Te,ir- The trade between the Black Sea and the Baltic was tonic Order in pushing throughLithuanian territory to already rapi,dly declining, and the era of the great the Black Sea anclthe Sea of Azov. Frorn this time, discoveries lvas iniminent, with atrl the enormous too, dates the fierce competitionbetween Cracorv and changeswhich they wrought in the direction and signi- Torun for accessto Hungaryand Ruthenia. Both sides ficanceof trade routes. applied the principlesof staple trade; they retaliated by barring each other tiom penetratingareas beyond DECLINE OF THE BLACK SEA TRADE thosenorrnally served, etc. One of the most interesting During the second halt of the 15th century, trade episoclesin this confli.cttook placein 1390-91:Ladislas with the Black Sea region entered upon a ,period o{ Jagielio,who was thenat loggerheadswith the Teutonic decline. The disintegrationof the Khanate oi Kipchak Knishts, expelledthe subjectsof the Order frorr his and the rapid advanceof the Turks in Asia Minor and kingdom and simultaneouslyconcluded an agreement the Balkans brought about an entirely new situation. rvith Boguslas,Duke of West Pomerania,in respectof The Turks occupied Salonika in 1430, and began to transitrights for a new trade route to the Baltic. This build up their naval power, although at first they were 'Ffanders line of communication the road',as it was ,no match for the Venetiansand the Genoese. The called - branchecloff at Lgczyca from the olcl route chief object of the Turks was to captureConstantinople, leadingfrom Cracowto Toruri,and ran along the Warta which vainly tried to find allies in western Europe. anclOder to the West Pomeranianports of Stralsund, Venice endeavoured16 5urpportthe moribund Empire, Stettin, Creifswalcl,Anklam ancl Riigenwalrle. The but could do noihing decisive, as its forces were object of this new departurervas to enablethe Polish preoccupied with conflicts in Italy itself. Genoa, merchantsto export Polish, Hungarian and oriental weakened by civil wars, did everything, possible to soods to Bruges without the necessity of passing conciliatethe Sultans,and to avoid their enmity. Every through Torufi, where staple laws were enforcedin attempt at a crusade against the Turks under these restraintof trade. The nelv route, holvever,was found conditionswas foredoomedto failure. The catastrophic in practiccto be too Iong and inconvenienta line of outcomeof the Battleof Varna(1444),largelydue to the communication,and to the end of the Middle Ages, defectionof the Genoese,marked ihe decisive triumph Poland made no further serious effort to participate as of Islam over Byzantium. Con,stantinople,unsup,ported a middlemanin the trade between the Levant and by the Christian world, fell in 1453. The Venetian westernEurope. merchantssuffered enormous losses. The Genoesepo- The wars betweenPoland and the TeutonicOrder pulation ot Pera, believingthe promisesof Mohammedll in the l5th centuryhindered the forrner'scommunication that he would respecttheir ancientrights and privileges, with the Baltic countries. Torufi rvas cut off from its remained neutral during the siege. Their hopes, how- natural hinterland for many years, and its importance ever,were doomed to disappointment:when the capital as a trading centre declinedto such an extent that it of the Greek Em'pirefell, the Sultan impo'sed,his autho- tinally withdrew altogether trom internationalcom- rity on the ltalian merchants,and forced them to pay merce. In later times, it rvas supplantedby Danzig, tribute and to demolish part of their fortifications.The rvhich very soon acquired a virtual monopoly for the maintraderoute joiningtheBlackSeawith the western export of Polish corn and iorest productsto England worlcl rvas now under the absolutecontrol of the Turks, and the Netherlands. But these were not the only and the Sultan soon found meansof turning this advan- profound changes taking place on the Baltic at that tage to political and financial account. Pera rapidly epoch. I-Libeck,with the Hanseatic League, lost its declinedin im,portance,and the chiel centre of Genoese predominantposition in Baltic trade during the second trade in the Near East was soon aiter transferred to half of the 15th century and was supersededby the the islandot Chios. En,glish and the Dutch. A lack ol toodstuifs and of In the case of Venice, trade with the countries of timber was felt in England and the Netherlandsat that the Black Sea ceased to play any rdle in its economic time, and these countries thereforeimrportecl commodi- life after the fall oi Consiantinoole.True. the Senate VOL. II1. tYo. l. [5]. JANUARY t937 T..{E BALTIC AND THE BLACK SEA I.\ XEDIEIV'AL TRADE 4l endeavouredin 1459 to relorm the state of atfairs in This could not bLltattract the attentionof Polishmer- Tanais, remernrberingthat viagium Tanae erat unum ex chants to trade with the East, the more so that the principalioribusuicgils et utilioribus,3 but their action Cenoesesettlemenrs in the Crimeamaintained the best yielded no resultsworthy of mention. of relations with Poland; they had, in fact, recognized The Genoesesettlements in the Crimea rvere in her suzerainty in 1462, in order to checlcmateTurkey a rather better position, but from 1450 onwards they and Hadji-Chirey, who was then tlie ally of Casimir rvere also forced to pay tribute to the Sultan; for the IV of Poland. time being, they were neither oppressednor attacked, It is no easy matter to depict the state of tiade the Sultan turning the whole force of his strength between the Baltic and the Black Sea at this period. against the Hungariansand the Morean Greeks. He The Genoese had los,t all interest in it, particularly kept Kaffa in checkby meansof an alliancervith Hadji- because they received their goocis of western Euro- Ghirey, the first Khan oi the Crimean Tartars, and this pean manufacture irom Flanders, England and the understandingwas an ever presentmenace which kept Netherlandsdirect. BLrtit can be supposecl,with a high the merchantsin consta.ntfear of invasion. The popu- degree of probability, that the Cracow anctLw6w mer- Iation began to leave Katfa, and trade soon dwindled chants sent Polish and other merchandise to Kalia away entirely. The Bank of St. George, which had throughthe internrediaryof their colleaguesin Cetatea governedthe Crimeansettlements since 1453,was most Alba. Their trade rvith the Baltic countries,however, unwilling to spend money on their maintenance:cor- was seriouslyhindered by the Thirteen Years War ruption began to spread like wild-tire, and the morale between Poland ancl the Teutonic Order, which was of the population,under the influenceof econornicfail- concludedonly in 1466 by the Peaceof Torun uresand politicaldisasters, sank to a Iow ebb. The situation of Kaffa deterioratedgreatly aiter In 1461, MoharnmedIl occupiedthe whole of the 1,471. Mohamrnedll, llushedwith his victory over the south coastof the Black Sea (includingTrabzon), and Venetiansand by the contluestof Euboea,forced Kafta so infliciedanother heavy blow at Crimeantrade with to pay a rnuchlarger tribute,and in 1475concluded an the East. It is even possiblethat the Sultan also irf- understandinglvith the Tartar murzas in rebellion tended to seize the Crinreaat the sarne time, but a againstthe Khan Mengli-Ohirey, the ally of the Genoese war with Uzun-Hassan,the Turkoman ruler of Persia, merchantsin the Crimea. The Sultan'schief aim at causedhim to abandon this plan for a while. Two tltat tinrewas, frorvever,the conquestof Moldaviaand years later (1463), the outbreak of the great war the sLlbjectionof KalJa was only a tacticalmove de- with Veniceturnecl the Sultan'sattention to a different signedto facilitatethe seizureof CetateaAlba with its q uarter. rich hinterland. Mohamrnecliully realizedthe enormous The war between the Sublime Porte and Venice economicand poliiical advantageshe would gain by gave the Genoesemerchant communities in the Crimea securingTurkish hegemonyover the whole Black Sea; a sorely neededbreathing space. Not wishing to force the ,planoutlinecl above offereclhim every opportunity the Cenoeseinto the arnrsof Venice,the Sultanceased of attaining this end. The Turkish fleet appeared to harrass them. Genoa, on its part, prized its trade beforeKaffa on June l, 1475,and the town capitulated with the East and strove at all costs to remain on a five days Iater, virtually rvithout firing a shot. The peacefui footins with Turkey. Genoa made only a samefate overtook Soldaia,Tanais and the other trading mere pretenceof preparing for the crusade proclaimeC settlenrentson the Crimean and Azov coasts. Hence- by Pope Pius II, and in reality kept Turkey supplied Iorth,only CetateaAlba and Chiliamaintained econonlic with munitionsol war and other goods in keen com- relations with the Easi, bLrt these torvns were iinally petition with the merchantsof Florenceand of Arcona. forced to ,submit to the victorious {orces ot Bayczid ll The result was that the economic situation of Kaffa in 1484.The Black Seatrade dwindled away to vanish- improved vastly. It is true that the Turkish garrison ing point, and only partially regained its iormer in the Bosphorusand the Dardanellesgreatly hindered volumeand significanceat a muchlater epoch,with the maritime communicationwith ltaly, but this lvas largely final stabilizationof Turkish hegemonyon the waters nullified by greater use being made of the overland and coastsof the Black Sea,and when amicablerela- route from Cetatea Alba (Akkerman), at the mouth of tions between Poland and the Sublime Porte made it the Dniester, thence through Hungary or through Po- possible to restore the system of international com- land, Silesia, Bohemia to Germany, Ausiria or ltaly. modity exchangeupon theseancient irade routes. According to the state archivesof Cenoa, merchantsoI that city passedthrough Lw6w and Cracow with slaves CONCLUSION and goods, and concludedcommercial agreements with The above outline of commerce between the the inhabitants of the Polish towns upon their route. Baltic and the Black Sea tegions makes it possible to
3 Senato Mar. l. R, lolio 169, Venetian State Archives. 42 M, MALOWIST EALTIC AND SCA,\DINAVIAN COUNTNES
arcive at the following conclusions. First of all, it is oriental trade on the Black Sea. The keen competitiorl obvious that the Baltic trade and the Black Sea trade betlveen Cracow and Toru6, and the wars befween lepresentedtwo distinctand separateeconomic entities' Poland and the Teutonic Order, made it difficult tor the The most animated relations between the two systems Poles and Prussiansto make the fullest and best use of existedduring the Varegianera, when the inhabitants their favourablegeographical location: by the time that oi northernEurope and the merchantsof the Orient and these conditions were replaced by more normal and the Near East merchantssought economiccollaboration peacefulones at the mouth of the Vistula, fundamental upon the trade routes of the Baltic-Euxine land-bridge. changeswere already taking place in the structure ol These commercialrelations shrank towards the middle Baltic trade, and the period of decline of the Black Sea of the 12th century, but acquiredfresh torce a hundred trade had already commenced.The shifting oi the great years later, although in rather changed form. Baltic trade routesoI the world which accompanied'the era of trade in the 14th and l5th centurieswas an integral discoveriesin the 15th century would in any case have part ot the Hanseatic trade, and the Black Sea trade been fatal to the developmentof commercial relations oi the Levant system. The Italians occupieda pre- between the Baltic and the Black Sea. None the less, clominantposition in the Black Sea trade and were it is evident that Poland'srpolicy was not without eftect interestedrather in attainingcontacts with CentralAsia upon the shaping ot commodity exchangebetween the than in developingtrade with the Baltic countries. two seas,whilst this transit trade contributedto arouse polish This caused ihe Prussian and Polish merchantsto the economicenergy ol the burghers during the rcstore direct communicationwith the centres of Middle Aees.
TRANSLATED 8Y A. TRUSZKOIY'.SK I