So, legally, the slave trade was tolerated by the Genoese colonial authorities only for Mussulmans and on condition that the transport leaving for Egypt should be carried out by merchants of their religion and in their own ships. Captains of Genoese ships were formally forbidden, under pain of heavy fines, to ship mamelukes of either sex for the purpose of carrying them into Egypt, Barbary, or the parts of Spain occupied by the Saracens; no Genoese was allowed to take part in this trade in any manner whatever. In the same way, on the departure from Tana, the Venetian galleys were forbidden to receive on board Mussulman or Tatar slaves destined to be sent into Turkish territory. These rules, however, did not prevent certain Christians from the northern shores of the Black Sea from sending slaves into Egypt. In 1307, the colonists of Kaffa themselves stole Tatar children to sell them to the Mussulmans (that is, to send them to Egypt). In 1371, a certain Niccolo di S. Giorgio went to Kaffa and gave himself out as a “dealer in slaves.” We do not know if he traded with Egypt, but, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, a Genoese, named Segurano Salvago, went himself with slaves of both sexes to the sultan of Egypt; another, named Gentile Imperiali, accepted the post of agent for the sultan at Kaffa for the purchase of slaves. Many Genoese also assisted indirectly in the transport of slaves to Egypt; the means consisted simply in hiring their vessels for this purpose to Mussulman slave merchants. Thus the complaints of Pope John XXII were well-founded, when before the whole world he accused the Genoese of contributing to increase the power of the infidels by furnishing them with slaves. Nearly a century later, at Kaffa, Tana, and other places, Christians and Jews bought Zichians, Russians, Alajans, Mingrelians, and Abkas and sold them again to the Saracens, with a profit often ten times as great as the price of purchase. These unhappy people, who had been baptised according to the Greek rite, were forced to deny their faith, and might esteem themselves happy if they did not become the victims of the masters who employed them for their infamous pleasures. Informed of this scandal, Martin V thundered excommunication against all the Christians who took part in it, while as for the Jews, he decreed that those proved guilty of it should be condemned to wear special marks on their clothes (1425).
In this manner, there arrived every year in the great market of Cairo, by way of Damietta or of Alexandria, about two thousand mamelukes, whom the sultan caused to be priced by skilful experts. The subjects who fetched the highest prices were the Tatars; they were worth from 130 to 140 ducats a head; for a Circassian they paid from 110 to 120 ducats, for a Greek about 90, for an Albanian, a Slavonian or a Serbian, from 70 to 80. The merchants had the double advantage of making large profits and of receiving tokens of the sovereign’s gratitude for the services they rendered to Islam.
The eastern slaves sent towards the northern shores of the Black Sea did not all leave with the large convoys for Egypt and Mohammedan countries in general; there are many examples of sale and purchase by members of the colonies themselves. Among others a certain Fatima may be mentioned, whose name evidently proclaims her Mussulman origin. She was bought in the first place by a Genoese, named Nicoloso da Murto, and ceded by him to the prior of the church of St. Laurence of the Genoese, who sold her to a third Genoese for the sum of 400 new Armenian dirhems; bills of sale of a similar kind which took place at Famagusta are still in existence. Those who had taken the habit of having foreign slaves in their service, during their residence in the colonies of the Levant, brought the custom back with them, and by their example encouraged others to introduce into their houses slaves bought at a distance, instead of hired servants or work-people. No prohibition existed against this, and the slave trade in itself was not considered disgraceful, provided that the merchant abstained from trading with Egypt. A Genoese law of 1441 furnishes a decided proof of this. It forbids all captains of large galleys armed for war, which went to fetch goods from Romania or Syria, to receive slaves on board, but the reason was that all disposable space might be reserved for goods, and it makes an exception in the case where a merchant on board is bringing a slave with him for his personal service. There were other vessels specially destined to the transport of slaves, and in respect to them the law took only such measures as were necessary to prevent crowding, which would have an injurious effect on the health of the cargo; for example, a vessel with one deck could not take more than thirty slaves on board, a vessel with two decks not more than forty-five, and a vessel with three decks not more than sixty.
At this period it was an understood thing that a Christian might, without scruple, treat as a slave any infidel who fell into his hands; and, for the greater part, it was precisely the infidels, that is to say the pagans or Mussulmans who formed the objects of this trade. The majority of foreign slaves brought to the Occident came originally from the empire of Kiptchak, situated at the south of Russia, as it now exists, and belonged either to the Tatar race, the most important one of the country, or to one of the tribes under its power—tribes generally called by the same name; the Circassians and the Russians were far less numerous; then came the Turks and Saracens, a name which was doubtless applied to the Egyptians and Syrians; and lastly, but in very small numbers, came Bulgarians, Slavonians, and Greeks. According to the ideas of the time, it was only in connection with the last named that any doubt could arise as to the legality of selling them as slaves, for they were Christians; but in practice men did not inquire too closely. As for those who were not members of the Christian religion, they were generally converted shortly after their arrival in the West and then exchanged their barbarous name for a Christian one; but, in spite of their conversion, their masters had no scruple in keeping them as slaves, and even in selling them again.
The very origin of the great majority of these slaves leads to the supposition that the nations which had colonies on the shores of the Black Sea, the Genoese and Venetians for example, were also the nations more especially addicted to trade in slaves. As a matter of fact hundreds, thousands even, were sent to Genoa and Venice, while they were far rarer at Pisa, Florence, Lucca, and Barcelona. In 1368 there were such large numbers of them in Venice that their quarrelsome, undisciplined masses formed an actual danger to the safety of the city. The Tatars were not brought there separately, but sometimes whole families of them together. From the seaports the slaves were sometimes sent into the interior; thus we hear in 1463 of a confectioner of Vigevano who had a Circassian slave girl, just as Marco Polo had a Tatar slave at Venice. Merchants from Genoa and Kaffa even took slaves of both sexes to the court of the German Empire, and the emperor Frederick III gave them permission to exhibit them for sale.
A Venetian Statesman
One of the interesting sides of the question we are now studying is the proportion of slaves of either sex in different countries; there was a marked difference in this respect between Egypt and the West. In Egypt, in spite of a somewhat large demand for female slaves for the harems, there was a still larger demand for male slaves, for they formed the chief contingent of army-recruiting; in the West, on the contrary, preference was given to young girls, and for various reasons: possessing a more gentle disposition, they more easily adapted themselves to life in general; then they were more apt than men for the domestic services required of them; they learned manual work more easily; and lastly, most of them were the instruments of their master’s pleasure. Which was the more enviable fate—that of the men slaves in Egypt, or that of the women slaves in Italy? It would be difficult to say. The former underwent much rough treatment while they were in the ranks, but they could rise to high posts in the army, and have sometimes even been seen seated on the throne of the sultan: the others were treated more kindly; and indeed their master not infrequently set them free, either during his life or by his will, but they never occupied a really respected position among the people.
Youth and health were the two qualities most esteemed; if the slave was also beautiful, naturally his value increased. M. Cibrario has made a list of the sales of slaves, the greater number of which occurred at Genoa or Venice; he found fifty-three in the thirteenth century, twenty-nine in the fourteenth, and twenty-eight in the fifteenth; he noted that the prices increased from one century to the other; for example, in the thirteenth century they varied between 200 and 300 lire; in the following century bargains struck under 500 lire are rare; the highest price rose to about 1400 lire; in the fifteenth century the current price was more than 800 lire; in 1492 at Venice a young Russian girl was even sold for 87 ducats, that is 2093 lire. In Tuscany, Bongi found that prices varied from 50 to 75 gold crowns; the two highest prices were 85 and 132 gold crowns, and they also were paid for Russian slaves.