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COLONIAL GOVERNMENTALITY IN THE IONIAN ISLANDS
tween 1844 and 1849 the total amounted to £153,798. In 1850 the contribution was
again fixed at £25,000 a year until 1863 (total £350,000), bringing the overall cost
of protection as defined by amounts spent on military expenses between 1825 and
1863 to about £1,200,000. Most of the amounts were spent on fortifications and
lodgings, at least until new barracks were constructed. Τhose employed in these
construction works are estimated at around 1,300 people, certainly a high number
but for the whole period 45 .
As a result of the deficiency in Ionian finances the debt of the Ionian State in
1863 stood at £232,506 or at £220,070 according to a different estimate 46 . Ionian
debt was initially £90,000 more, a sum that was cancelled by Great Britain in a
‘haircut’ of the Ionian debt. The largest part of the debt included government orders
(£75,085) and money borrowed by the government from the Ionian Bank
(£70,300) as well as money from pension funds. The very large (for the time) debt
was about twice the annual revenue of the Ionian State. In 1863, Kirkwall, in the
appendix to the second volume of his Four Years in the Ionian Islands, quotes
George Marcoran who suggested to him that the contributions of Ionians to the Protectorate
exceeded £1 million throughout the period and were approximately
£1,200,000. Andreadis has calculated this sum even higher, at £1,395,957 47 . An analytical
view of Ionian finances according to the end of each Commissioner’s term
provides a clear picture of fiscal prudence or mismanagement. Until 1849 and the
devolution of control over finances to the Assembly, the High Commissioner in office
was ultimately responsible for the monetary resources of the country.
Maitland had not reserved any amount for fortifications but Adam spent
£154,000 over seven years, that is, £22,000 per year 48 . Kirkwall, based on Napier’s
correspondence, concludes that while annual revenue under Maitland exceeded
£100,000 but his expenditure did not exceed £87,000, under Adam revenue went
up to £140,000 per year, all of which was spent besides the £130,000 surplus that
Maitland had left. The expenses were not totally unjustified, except the summer palace
(‘Mon Repos’) that Adam built at a cost of £20,000. The works to provide
Corfu with water and the increased number of schools founded in the islands consumed
most of the budget. The additional expense was the work on the fortifications,
around £22,000, plus other naval and military expenses, an overall total of
about £50,000 per year; given that the average annual revenue was about £140,000,
this was a large amount –more than a third of the revenue– a sum that the next
Commissioner, Nugent, brought down to £35,000. Nevertheless, even if Adam left
45 Προγουλάκης, 2003, p. 73.
46 V. Kirkwall, Four Years in the Ionian Islands. Their political and social condition, vol. 2, London
1864, p. 335-6; for a different estimate, see Γ. Δερτιλής, Ατελέσφοροι ή Τελέσφόροι;
Φόροι και εξουσία στο Νεοελληνικό Κράτος, Athens 1993, p. 128. Dertilis is based on Andreadis,
1938.
47 Ανδρεάδης, Η Ένωσις της Επτανήσου και η διοίκησις της Προστασίας, Αθήνα 1907,
p. 16.
48 Kirkwall, vol. I, p .120, 124-5.
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