The Mongols and the Black Sea Trade in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries

The inclusion of the Black Sea basin into the long-distance trade network - with its two axes of the Silk Road through the Golden Horde (Urgench-Sarai-Tana/Caffa) and the Spice Road through the Ilkhanate (Ormuz-Tabriz-Trebizond) - was the two Mongol states' most important contribution to making the sea a "crossroads of international commerce".