This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Labour society and politics in Cypus during the second half of the nineteenth century. Katsiaounis, Rolandos 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: 06. Oct. 2021 LABOUR, SOCIETY MD POLITICS IN CYPRUS DURING THE SECOND HALF OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY ROLANDOS KATS IAOUNIS A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (99(, KING'S COLLEGE DEPARTMENT OF BYZPNTINE AND MODERN GREEK STUDIES 1 I isttL) ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am particularly grateful to Professor Richard Clogg for su- pervising my research and I am happy to acknowledge his constant encouragement, impressive erudition in history and advice on mat- ters of literary style. The thesis has also benefited from dis- cussions with Dr. George Georghallides, ex-Director of the Cyprus Research Centre, and Mr. Kyriacos Vassiliou ex-Head of the His- tory Department in the English School, Nicosia; my warm thanks are extended to both of them. Naturally, I retain sole respon- sibility for the conclusions contained in the text. Finally I would like to thank my parents; without their help the thesis would not have been written. Liinassol, May, 1996. 2 ABSTRACT Under Ottoman rule Cypriot society was organised according to the Millet system, which designated the Greeks as an inferior race and accredited the Bishops as their political representa- tives. The organisation of the economy and the structuring of trades in a guild system contributed to the perpetuation of a stratified society. The inherent ideology of the poor included both invective against the social and political establishment and also acceptance of the establishment's perspective. The British occupation of 1878 and the introduction of European norms in ad- ministration removed the institutional supports of this corporate society and undermined the authority of the landed interest and the clergy. Labour became more independent as a consequence of new employment opportunities. At the same time heavy taxation and usurious practices under- mined the cohesion of a society of smaliholders, creating opposi- tion against both the Government and the money-lending estab- lishment. The fabrique of Cypriot society began to break down, with the spread of disease, crime and a laxity of traditional morality. Amongst the labouring strata deviance was manifested by disrespect against higher authority, violations of the law and the phenomenon of social banditry. The social establishment and the clergy could still exercise considerable influence by retain- ing for themselves an image of paternal responsibilities toward the labouring poor and by promoting religious values to them. 3 Loyalties however were shifting due to the spread of a literacy based on Greek education, an anti-government press and the inter- vention of a new and nationalist middle class. By the turn of the century a nationalist popular movement was able to cha.].Jenge effectively the old conservative estab- lishment, demonstrating that nationalism, and not religion, was to be the ideology according to which political issues would have to be settled thereafter. 4 CONTENTS Chapter 1. Introduction Page I. Aim and Scope of the Thesis 8 II. Sources and Methodology of Research 12 III. A Note on the Theoretical Framework of the Thesis 20 Chapter 2. The Ancien Regime under Ottoman Rule I. The Economics and Politics of the Church of Cyprus 24 II. Iltizain and the Lay KocabasLs 28 III. The Forces of Nationalism 35 IV. The Politics of the Greek Elite 41 V. The Address to the First British High Commissioner 47 Chapter 3. The Circumstances of Toil under Ottoman Rule I. Smallholders and Labourers in Large Estates 54 II. Tradesmen and Labourers in Towns 72 III. The Decline of the Corporate Economy 84 IV. The Ideology and Culture of the Labouring Poor 91 V. The Politics of Paternalism 110 Chapter 4. The Foundations of British Rule I. Colonial Rule - Hope and Disillusionment 115 II. The End of Millet and the Church 128 III Ethnic and Social Relations under British Rule 137 IV. Social and Regional Dimensions of Electoral Politics 148 V. Ideas as Forces of Change 161 5 Chapter 5. Changes in Landed Proprietorship and the Rural Crisis I. The Confirmation of Private Property in Land 172 II. Taxation, Usury and Rural Expropriation 179 III. The Poor Being Ground Down 190 IV. Paternalism during Colonial Rule 201 Chapter 6. The Growing Independence of Labour I. Continuity and Change in Corporate Trades 207 II. The Weakening of Client Relationships 216 III. An Undisciplined Labour Force 234 Chapter 7. The Erosion of Paternalism I. Declining Respect for the Establishment 240 II. Deviance and Crime 246 III. The Phenomenon of Social Banditry 258 Chapter 8. Moralizing the Labouring Poor I. The Hysteria against Masterless Men 273 II. Labour Deference and Civil Obedience 278 III. Labour Associations and their Purpose 285 Chapter 9. A Changing Society I. The Rise of a New Middle Class 300 II. The Mounting Sentiment of Nationalism 311 III. The Deputation to London 319 IV. Social Divisions and Freemasonry 325 6 Chapter 10. The Formation of a Popular Movement I. The Class Bias of Taxation 329 II. Rural Agitation 332 III. Wage-Earners, Tradesmen and Popular Grievances 337 IV. Towns as Centres of Social Conflict 343 Chapter 11. The Consolidation of Nationalism I. International Factors - The Image of Greece and Turkey 354 II. Nicolaos Katalanos and his Lectures to Labour 365 Chapter 12. The Assault Against the Old Order I. The Archiepiscopal Question 380 II. Politics of Deference and Politics of Disrespect 390 III. The Hegemony of Nationalism 401 Chapter 13. Conclusion I. The Rearguard Action of the Old Order 407 II. Clas8 and Nation in the Popular Movement 411 Bibliography 415 7 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION I. Aim and Scope of the Thesis The present study examines the process by which the opinions of Cyprus' labouring poor began to count as politics. More specifically it attempts to explain the underlying social basis of the political and national transformations which culminated towards the end of the 19th century, when the labouring people, led by a nationalist middle class, were able to pose a challenge to the social and political status quo. In the history of Cyprus the mass of ordinary people, whose voice was seldom reflected in the oratory of the politicians, or the effusions of the school- masters, tended to be lost sight of as an independent entity and to be presented in accordance with the opinions or interests either of their leaders or of their enemies. The thesis therefore endeavours to put at the forefront the elements making up the Cypriot sans-culottes - peasants, tradesmen and labourers - as social groups with their own identity, interests and aspirations. The first part of the thesis focuses on the closing years of Ottoman rule in Cyprus, from the time of the Tanzimat reforms (1839-1856) to the British occupation in 1878. Since the previous century the framework of social and political life in Ottoman Turkey was provided by the Millet system, according to which ot- toman subjects were organised in empire-wide communities of the same confession or rite. Next to the dominant Muslim Millet the 8 Orthodox Christians, the Jews and the Armenians were designated as distinct Millets, whose members held a certain and defined status. 1 Cyprus, at the time of the first census, in April 3, 1881, almost three years into the British occupation, was in- habited by 186,173 souls. 2 Of these, 137,631 (73.9%) were Greek members of the Orthodox Church and 45,458 (24.4%) were Mohammedan Turks. There were also 2,115 (1.1%) Catholics, 715 (0.4%) Protes- tants, 179 (0.1%) Armenian Copts, 65 Jews and 15 Gypsies.3 A consequence of the religiously-defined status of Ottoman subjects was that in Cyprus, as in the rest of the Empire, Bishops and Primates in general were designated as BaSLS (leaders) of their Millet, or Ethnarkhes. Below the Prelates, a small circle of wealthy KocabasLs (headmen) were allotted a cer- tain status within Greek society, and the Ottoman order. Greek nationalism was the prerogative of a handful of bourgeois intel- lectuals, concentrated in the European consulates of the two port towns of Larnaca and Limassol. The Greek labouring poor, in town and country, lived in conditions of administrative and economic oppression; their political influence amounted to nil. The viability of the system was conditional upon the capacity of the Ottoman state to impose it and on the readiness of the lower or- 1.