o_19heefouak9i9v4do11ac41pi7a.pdf

COLONIAL GOVERNMENTALITY IN THE IONIAN ISLANDS
time (in Zante, for example, from 8,000 to around 5,800). The spinners and weavers
of Zante found no market for their handicraft products; the import of British manufactured
goods crowded them out of local and especially regional markets. However,
this shift in employment and production was not accompanied by the necessary
changes in the land ownership regime to allow greater profit margins for currant
growers. A small number of traders controlled exports from Patras as well as from
Zante; in Kefalonia the export of currants was also concentrated in just a few hands 37 .
The safety valve of shipping and seasonal migration to the mainland opposite the islands
during the wheat harvest secured the necessary income for some families. At
the same time the Ionian government, even in the days of enlightened High Commissioners
such as Nugent, who was sensitive to the growers’ debt problems, bowed to
pressure from English currant merchants. The latter exploited the leverage that the
government in London had on Nugent and achieved the repeal of the law on currant
warehouses, which benefited growers and reduced the power of the currant exporters
38 . By the end of the period, however, Ionian currants were less competitive than
Greek currants. Around 1860 currants in the Greek Kingdom were taxed at 18 to 20
drachmas per thousand weight, whereas in the Ionian Islands the tax remained 19.5%
on the price, which for the ‘locust years’ of 1855 and 1856 (because of vine disease)
represented 95 drachmas per thousand weight. Later in 1857, 1858 and 1859, tax
went down to 23, 62 and 28 drachmas respectively, which was still above the level of
Greek export tax 39 . This less-than-enough reduction in taxes cancelled the benefits
from the good harvest years in the islands during the last period of the Protectorate.
Policies favourable to British imports and the constant failure to significantly reduce
export taxes and import duties in Britain meant that the Ionian trade balance remained
constantly in deficit throughout the period 40 . The impact of the trade deficit on state finances
was severe since state revenues came exclusively from indirect taxation, import
and export duties. Moreover, the absurd taxation system of the Ionian State stipulated
that goods traded within the islands were taxedplacing a significant burden during the
decades of British rule since the Ionian State was a federal state with the Islands being
–at least in theory– individual states. The deficit and the far from efficient taxation system
constitute the two basic deficiencies or failures of the Ionian State public finances 41 .
The Ionian State depended for its revenue on the customs duties that were collected
at the islands’ ports. In 1825 the port of Corfu was declared free port; the
37 Ernest Toole, the manager of the Ionian Bank branch in Kefalonia, exported 40% of all
currant shipments from that island in 1863. Barff & Co had a share of 22% of the exports from
Kefalonia and 38% of the exports from Zante while also being the principal currant exporters
in Patras, opposite Zante on the Greek mainland. Ionian Islands Government Gazette (hereafter
IIGG), 1863, Statistics compiled from the issues for the months September to March.
38 Π. Χιώτου, Ιστορία του Ιονίου Κράτους, vol. 2, p. 94.
39 Ανδρεάδης, Η Ένωσις της Επτανήσου και η διοίκησις της Προστασίας, Athens 1907.
40 A. Gekas, ‘Costs and benefits of British rule in the Ionian Islands. Some tentative
views’, (unpublished paper) http://www.hdoisto.gr/Keimena/gekas.pdf.
41 Andreadis, 1907, 13-5.
~ 313 ~