:tanga models
tanga models
Mongol middlemen met Venetian merchants at the Mongol-ruled Persian trading cities of Tabriz and Trebizond, and the Black Sea port of Tana, and traded gold for silver from Europe. A large-scale trade in slaves from Mongol domains was associated with this currency trading. This was the so-called ‘‘tanga gold,’’ from the tanghi or uncoined pieces bearing the seal of the Mongol Khans, as well as bar and leaf gold.
The silver was in small Venetian ingots called sommi, which ‘‘were the common medium of exchange throughout the Mongol and Tatar Khanates.... [T]he demand for silver in the Far East was continually increasing,’’ writes Lane. ‘‘The Venetians were able to raise the price of silver despite the existence of record quantities’’ coming to Venice from Europe..
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