165
Tzavara, Angéliki
« Une campagne commerciale en ‘Perse’, 1390-1391 ». Turcica, 36, 2004, pp. 19-35.
The present article is and should be read as the companion to another by the same Author, « Morts en terre étrangère. Les Vénitiens en Orient (seconde moitié du XIVe-première moitié du XVe siècle) » (Thesaurismata, 30, 2000, pp. 189-239).
In 1390, a group of at least three (but most probably more) Venetian merchants left Tana (present-day Azov on the Black Sea) bound for Shamakhi (hence “Persia” within quotation marks in the title of the article). We do not know whether the city was planned to be the final destination of the journey since the beginning. However, this commercial enterprise came to an end there when two of the traders died in Shirvan between the end of 1390 and the beginning of the following year.
Based as it is on Venetian archive sources, the article tells us more about the Venetian traders, their preparations for the journey and, above all, the consequences of the latter, rather than about Persia or Shirvan. However, the readers will be able to glean some information on the economic life of the latter, mainly the exchange rates between what the Venetian sources call the bisante of Shamakhi and other currencies used in the Pontic-Caspian region. The article also confirms the importance of Shirvan for the production and export of silk.

