The Unification of the Globe by disease (14th-17th cent.) - I. - Asia and Europe

"..In about 1266, the Genoese founded the colony of Caffa on the southeast coast of the Crimea. The pax mongolica enabled the pioneers of this new trading-post to make safe and regular use of a route which “for the first time in history enjoyed absolute security” – an unthinkable situation before the unification and pacification of central Asia by the forces of Genghis Khan. This new safe route carried the Mediterranean and Black Sea trade of Genoese merchants all the way to the Far East. It crossed the Sea of Azov from Caffa to Tana at the mouth of the Don, after which it bore the Genoese traders on their seemingly interminable journey by ox-cart and then by camel, donkey and mule, and by boats when it came to the rivers and the Caspian Sea, into the heart of China, the source of silk. This route was in constant use in those two fatal  decades, the 1330s and 1340s, the very time it was described by Francesco Pegolotti in his book Pratica della Mercatura. It was a successful route, swarming with men and convoys ever moving to and fro, since Chinese silks brought this way to the bazaars of Constantinople cost much less than if they had come in the traditional manner along the ancient route travellers took before the establishment of this great Genoa-Mongolia road..."