o_19heefouak9i9v4do11ac41pi7a.pdf

SAKIS GEKAS
new status meant that goods could be stored in the port for re-export, with a duty
of one per cent ad valorem for up to six months 42 . The increasing importance of the
transit trade can be seen in the Blue Books records. Transit exports increased steadily
from the early 1840s onwards, rocketed in the late 1850s to more than 70 per
cent of total exports and fell again in the early 1860s, but was still 63 and 55 per
cent of all exports by the end of the period. The transit data refer primarily to Corfu
and Zante ports, where goods were stored before re-export to the Ottoman
mainland, Patras, southern Italy, and other areas as far as the Black Sea from where
grain was carried back to the Islands. Under a prudent fiscal administration increased
trade could have led to higher revenues for the Ionian State and potentially
to a more extensive program of public works.
Public finances and the cost of protection
State revenue depended on the tariffs collected at the ports and together with the
expenditure on public works and salaries determined the fiscal condition of the
Ionian Islands. The expenditure for salaries not only was inelastic but in fact grew
over the period. As a result expenditure for public works was scaled back significantly
and was reduced to very small sums by the 1850s. The ability of the Ionian
State to carry out public works that would improve living conditions in the islands
depended on the annual revenue and expenditure and is at the heart of the discussion
of the ‘costs’ of British protection. The available sources tell us that the Ionian
government paid substantial sums for this protection.
The actual cost of military protection is estimated by calculating the sum attributed
annually for fortifications and other defence expenses, which at times reached
a third of Ionian expenditure. For the first fifteen years of British rule, between
1818 and 1834, when the value of Corfu as a naval and military post was much
higher than later in the period, it is estimated that the government spent £190,850
on the Corfu fortifications, £77,206 on the construction of barracks and £46,370 on
their renovation, an extraordinary total of £315,426, reflecting the importance of
Corfu for British colonial planning in the Mediterranean 43 . In 1825 the money allocated
by the Assembly for fortifications and other military expenses stood at
£164,000. In 1833 only £15,000 was spent; in 1834 the contribution was fixed at
£35,000 a year and remained so until the end of 1843. Therefore for the nine years
between 1834 and 1843 military expenditure totalled £320,833.
In 1844 Seaton decided that one-fifth of the annual revenue should be paid into
the military budget, which brought the sum to an average of £25,633 a year 44 . This
arrangement remained in force until the end of 1849; therefore for the six years be-
42 IIGG, No. 400, 15/27 August 1825.
43 A. Δούσμανης, Η εν ταις Ιονίοις Νήσοις αποστολή του Λόρδου Γλάδστων, Kerkyra
1875, p. 461.
44 M. Paximadopoulou-Stavrinou, Πολιτειογραφικά Ιονίων Νήσων επί Αγγλικής Κυριαρχίας,
1815-1864, Εταιρεία Κεφαλληνιακών Ιστορικών Ερευνών, Athens 1997, p. 51.
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