The Economics of the Frontier by Ronald Findlay & Mats Lundahl

Author:Ronald Findlay & Mats Lundahl
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK, London

Chinggis Khan did not divide his troops between garrisons in the conquered territories across his wide empire. Instead he stationed smaller contingents, known as tamma, on the borderlands between the steppe and the settled populations (Morgan 1986, pp. 93–94). He preferred to keep his main forces as a mobile reserve in the steppes of Mongolia, southern Russia and Turkestan. From there they could easily be deployed wherever the political and military circumstances called for it. But of course, in the end, a more settled governance and life-style was inevitable (Lattimore 1963a, p. 68). In the end the tamma became the nuclei of the permanent military forces in the subsidiary khanates (Morgan 1986, p. 95). The very size of the empire required a large-scale sedentary administration—but this also sealed its fate. Significantly, the part of the empire that lasted longest—until 1502—was the Golden Horde (Kwanten 1979, p. 252; cf. Morgan 1986, p. 174):The Golden Horde settled in the nomadic zone and incorporated the nomadic population into its state structure; and from the nomadic zone it controlled the conquered sedentary areas, primarily Russia. The Horde preferred to follow the steppe tradition of acting as distant overlords rather than directly. It contented itself with collecting taxes and tribute, which was gathered for it by the subjected population, appointing princes, and acting as arbiters in disputes. This policy meant that the Horde rarely became embroiled in local politics and it never identified its interests with those of its Russian subjects.

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