Constructing Ionian identities: the Ionian Islands in British official ...

Economically, the Ionian Islands suffered during the Venetian era. Venice had
encouraged local mono-cultures by enforcing the exclusive cultivation of olives in
Corfu and currants in Zante and Cephalonia, creating many risks associated with
local soil and climatic conditions, with harvests being unpredictable for olives and
easily ruined for currants. Annual grain crop rarely exceeded three or four months
consumption and the rest had to be imported. Venetian protectionist policies, which
included conducting all shipping through its own ports, resulted in additional import
and export taxes on Ionian goods, hampering the Ionian economy as a whole. 150
It has been asserted “the great triumph of Venice’s colonial rule was that,
although it seldom governed by popular consent, it brilliantly maintained the illusion
of doing so”. 151 As Calligas noted, Venice “utilized the local power of the nobility to
impose her rule, both parties co-operated in sustaining a system that preserved their
rule”. 152 After the end of the Venetian occupation, when the rising commercial
bourgeoisie challenged the authority of the nobility, the British were more interested
in maintaining their own control than identifying closely with the nobility. As
Laidlaw has shown, British policy throughout the Empire was to forge political
allegiance though governmental patronage. 153 After 1848, Britain’s problems may
150 For example prices were kept low due to the existence of a single market, contraband trade and
piracy grew, and transit trade that had proved successful in the past, ceased. Indirect taxation “seemed
unjust and injurious to trade” but the “Ionians loathed direct taxation, a lesson the British learned in
their turn”, see Pratt M., Britain's Greek Empire. Reflections on the history of the Ionian Islands from
the fall of Byzantium, (London, 1978), p. 25.
151 Pratt M., Britain’s Greek Empire, p. 23
152 Calligas E., “The Rizospastai (Radicals-Unionists)”, p. 17.
153 See Laidlaw Z., Colonial Connections, 1815-1845.
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