o_19heefouak9i9v4do11ac41pi7a.pdf

COLONIAL GOVERNMENTALITY IN THE IONIAN ISLANDS
Ionian government with rates up to 6% for short-term loans (three months) and
5% for longer terms (seven months to two years) 64 . The deterioration of public finances
in a period of crisis, such as the early 1850s, is reflected in the levels of state
borrowing; between March and September 1852 the Ionian government borrowed
£31,000 65 . The board of directors of the British bank were never too keen on lending
to the Ionian government but were equally reluctant to do so given that the
bulk of the bank’s operations took place in the Ionian Islands.
While the Ionian government accumulated debt, many Ionians took to the sea as
a source of employment. Thousands of Ionians were occupied in maritime jobs during
the period of the Protectorate, from shipping and maritime commerce in the
Adriatic, the Aegean and the Black Sea, to more coastal trade as well as fishing and
goods handling in the ports. The best example is the island of Ithaki, 30% of whose
population was consistently employed in what British and Ionian administrators
classified ‘commerce’ throughout the period 66 . The Ionian Bank facilitated the
founding of the eight insurance banks of the islands by Ionian capitalists, which in
turn encouraged the interest of many tens of other Ionians in the novel practice of
investment. Investment probably reflected an increasing social antagonism between
private entrepreneurs and the public sector. Competition in the banking sector and
the ‘insurance mania’ is, for Prontzas, the indicator of economic performance 67 .
However, most Ionians did not invest in joint-stock companies, remained extremely
vulnerable to crop failures and many were locked in a persistent cycle of
debt. In 1856, eight prominent citizens from Paxos submitted a petition to the Director
of Police in the island urging him to take any measures deemed necessary
to ameliorate the condition of ‘the people’ who, according to the petitioners, were
on the verge of starvation after several years of bad olive crops. Growers in Paxos,
the petition noted, were unable to sell their property, borrow or find other sources
of employment. High grain prices because of shortages during the Crimean War
affected all islands and brought up the cost of living. Two weeks later, the eight
petitioners submitted another report stressing that the number of poor and beggars
had increased owing also to the unpaid prostychi (debt incurred on growers
by selling their produce in advance in return for money) owed to lenders. They
stressed the people’s desperation and their own confusion in the face of a rapidly
deteriorating situation 68 .
During those adverse times shortages of grain combined with disease to produce
a multifaceted crisis. Such a period lasted from the early to mid-1850s when credit
64 ‘Letter of 25th November from the Manager Zante, transmitting a request from the
Lord High Commissioner for a Loan for £10,000 to the Ionian Government for 3 years at 6
per cent per annum.’ 14th December 1840, 3/1Minute Books and Corporate Records, Ionian
Bank Archive, British Library of Political and Economic Sciences, LSE.
65 Cottrell, The Ionian Bank, p. 268.
66 Ionian Islands Blue Books of Statistics, CO 136/1392-1426, National Archives, London.
67 Πρόντζας, «Οικονομικές επιδόσεις του 19ου αιώνα», p. 534, 540.
68 E. A. 1754, 26 September 1856 and 8 October 1856, No. 107, I.A.K.
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