Mongolian Period of the Silk Road

Genghis Khan whose plans were to conquer the Silk Road realized that with the impressive military power of Mongols it would be impossible to control all the routes for long. Therefore, having occupied the northern route Genghis Khan began to methodically destroy Arabian and Turkic cities standing on the southern route. Doing so Genghis Khan tried to stop the intense commodity exchange beyond his control.  

In the middle of the 13th – 15th centuries when Central Asia, Iran and the steppes of Eurasia were governed by the successors of Genghis Khan, active trade between the East and the West continued and intensified. The Mongol Golden Horde (the territory from Siberia to Eastern Europe governed by the grandson of Genghis Khan, Berke) with the capital in Serai Berk dominated all over the northern intercontinental caravan road going from China via Otrar and Khoresm, the bottom Volga region, Azov, the Crimea and Europe - the huge part of international trade in the 14th – 15th centuries.

Mongolian domination stimulated caravan trade between China and the Mediterranean countries. But all benefits from that trade were gained by the Golden Horde. Most caravans followed round Transoxiana, going directly to the Volga to the north from the Caspian Sea, and moved to the Black Sea from there. Khoresm was the southern sector o that northern route continuing to play the role of the link in the chain of regional and intercontinental goods exchange. Urgench was another major center of trade whose markets wee oversaturated.