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Greek Banking in Constantinople, 1850-1881

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This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Greek banking in Constantinople, 1850-1881. Exertzoglou, Haris H A The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 10. Oct. 2021 to Angelo.. List of contents List of Tables p • I-Ill Abbreviations p • IV Acknowledgements p . V Introduction p.VI-VIII Part I Chapter I:The 19th century Ottoman empire;the economic landscape. p.1-22 Th Ottoman loans. p.23-33 Notes to Chapter I. p.34-36 Chapter II:Ottoman finances p•Z7...43 Revenues p.44-56 Ebcpenditure p.57-66 Notes to Chapter II. p. 6 7-69 Chapter III:The Greek commercial community in Con/ple;1850- 1881. p. 70-i 01 Notes to Chapter III. p.102-103 Part II Chapter IV:The origins and development of credit in the Ottoman empire;some introductory remarks. p.104-115 Chapter V:The early stages of Greek banking in Con/pie; the role of Greek bankers in the establishment of a National Bank in the Ottoman empire. p.1l6-130 Notes to Chapter V. p.131 Chapter VI :Euphoria and frustration. Short term advances to the Treasury. p. 132-1i17 Rates of profit and the development of banking institutions in Con/pie. p. 148-163 Banking and financial crises. p.l64-l77 Notes to Chapter VI. p.178-180 Chapter VII:The turning point;the period 1875-1881. p. 181-1 92 Notes to Chapter VII. p.193 Chapter VIII:Three case studies. p.194 The Societe Generale de i'Enpire Ottoman. p.194-205 The Banque de Constantinople. p. 206-217 The Societe Ottomane des Changes et Valeurs. p.218-226 Ev'aluat ion. p. 226-229 Chapter IX:The placing of Greek loans on the Con/pie money market. p. 230-252 Notes to Chapter IX. p.253 Chapter X:The road to the establishment of the Ottoman Public Debt Administration;Financial diplomacy and the role of Greek bankers. p.25&1-263 The Scouloudi Plan. p. 263-273 The interval of confusion. p.273-293 The Con,etion of 22 November 1879;the prelude to the Ottoman Public Debt Administration. p. 2 93-303 Towards the inevitable end;the establishment of the Public Debt Administration. p. 503-311 Chapter XI :Conclusions. p. 312-325 Appendices p. 326-330 Bibliography p . 331-349 List of Tables. Table I:The Ottoman loans 1854- 1874. p. 21a Table II:The growth of the Ottoman Public Debt and its service. p. 25a Table I:The Ottoman budgets, 1860-1881 p. A2a Table II:The growth of revenues and expenditure. p .42b Table III:Public revenue, 1859-1881. p.5(a Table IV: public expenditure, 1859-1881 p. 66a Table I:Con/pie;rnovement of English ships p. 72-73 Table II:Con/ple in the 1870's. p. 101a - Table I:The Internal Debt of the E.npire in the 1850's. p.132 Table II:The interaction of loans,budgets, and short term advances. p.141 a Table III:The volume of the Floating debt, 1862-1875. p.143 Table IV:Local loans contracted between November 1871 and Narch 1872 (in IT). P • 145 Table V:The Con/pie stock exchange in 1872. p . 162-163 Table VI:The movement of share prices of the major banking establishments in Con/pie. p. 174a I Table I:Statement of local loans, 1878-1879 P'186a Table I:Societé Generaie;short term advances made to the Treasury . p.195a Table II:Societé Generale;Tota]. assets, 1871-1881. p.201a Table III:Societé Generale;Net profits, 1869-1881. p. 203a Table IV:Societé Generale;Proportion of profits to real capital. p.?O4 Table V:Banque de Con/pie; Short term advances to the Treasury,1876-1881. p.?11 Table VI:Banque de Con/ple; Proportion of annual capital yield in % of the paid up capital. p.2l5 Table VII:Banque de Con/ple;Movement of net profits and diitributed dividends, 1872-1881. p.?15a Table VIII:Banciue de Con/pie; Total assets, 18721881. p.217a Table IX:Societé Ottomane; Proportion of net profits to the paid up capital. p.224 Table X:Societé Ottomane; Movement of net profits, 1873-18E1. p.224a Table XI:Societé Ottomane; Total assets, 1873-1881. p.225a II Table I:The Greek Internal Debt, 1862-1877 p.251 Table II:Greece; Public Debt payments as compared to total expenditure. III Abbreviations A.Y.E:Archeia tou Ellinirou Ypourgeiou cotericon;Archives of the Greek Foreign Ministry,Athens. A} :Archives Nationals:Ministere d'Economie et Finances,Paris. A&P :Accounts and Papers,British Nuseuin,London. C.R :Commercial Reports,Foreign and Commonwealth Office Library,London FPE :Ethniki Trapeza Tis Elladas.Correspondence of the house of Zarifi and Zafiropoulo with the Administration of the National Bank of Greece.Archeia tis Trapezis:Archives of the National Bank of Greece, Athens. FPE/L:Correspondence of Tvlichalis Zarifis(London) with the Administration of the National Bank of Greece:Archives of the National Bank of Greece ,Athens. PRO/FO:Public Record Office/Foreign Office,Kew. AIESEE;Association International des etudes du Sud-Est Europeen. Colloque;Istanbul a la jonction des cultures balkaniques mediterraneennes, slaves et orientale aux XVIe-.XIXe siecles.Istanbul 15-20 Octobre 1973/ Bucarest 1977. IJMES:Interantional Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. IJTS :Interriational Journal of Turkish Studies. JE :Journal of European Economic History. JEH :Journal of Economic History. Iv AC}CLEDGTS !'1any people assisted me in the prenaration of this thesis and I would like to express ry gratitude to all of them.Richard Clogg supervised the thesis and patiently preside" over my labr'urs for four academic years pointing out mistakes and sugesting alterations arid additions. Special tharis are due to George Dertilis arid Vasilis Panayiotopoulos who discussed the topic with me at various stages of the work giving invaluable hints. I would also like to express my gratitude to my parents and fa'nily,who both morally nd financia1ly,surporte r me throuphout the perio'i of my studies.Ariditionally,I hav to thank Suzanah Verney who read parts of this thesis and pointed out various errors and Helleruisisms in my Fnlish. I owe a debt of ,ratitude to the Alexandros Onassis rounaation,the bchilizzi Foundation,the Ronald Burrows Fund,and the Commercial Bank of Greece for the financial assistance that made this thesis possible. V INTRODUCTION As an economist by training I initially intended to carry out research on the subject of capital accumulation in Greece.After some time I decided to concentrate my research on the Greek bankers in Con/pie and examine their particular role with regard to the 19th century Greek economy.During the course of my studies,however,I gave emphasis to Greek banking in Con/ple and gradually dropped interest in Greece proper.Therefore,the contribution of the Constantinopolitan Greek bankers to t/ Greek economic development is only partly examined here.On the other hand,however,any approach to the question of t7 Greek economic history in the 19th century which does not take into account the activities of the Greek diaspora would be unrealistic.In addition,the history of Greeks living outside the small Greek kingdom is an essential and integral part of the history of the Greeks in modern time.To this extent,I hope that my thesis presents an acceptable account of this particular aspect of the Greek history. At a later stage of my studies my interest was shifted to another question.What was the economic role of the diaspora Greeks.The answer to this question is far beyond the scope of this thesis since any discussion would involve the examination of a variety of aspects regarding Greek economic activities in general,in various areas,and in the course of at least three centuries.Yet,it is not an exaera..tion to say that this question hovers over this thesis,in which I discuss some aspects of the question such as,the business mentality of Greek bankers in Con/ple,their motives and their function in the context of the Ottoman econom! in 1850-1881. VI It is essential to note that such aspects of the Greek diaspora are not only little studied but,to the extent they have been discussed at all,misunderstood as well.There are few,and not always convincing,monographs,and articles examining the Greek diaspora.Since the diaspora Greeks are considered to be a product of European capitalism-which is undoubtedly true-their economic activities are always examined in this context.Thus,there has been no analysis of the Greek diaspora as a relatively autonomous phenomenon in the context of particular economies and in particular eras.
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