o_19heefouak9i9v4do11ac41pi7a.pdf

DESPINA VLAMI
suit of profit and business, made this whole system run. The success of the operations
and the accomplishment of the goal enhanced trust and solidarity and confirmed
‘friendship’, family and business relationships.
Haido borrowed money on interest directly from family friends, acquaintances
and her brother’s associates. She either corresponded with them or contacted them
personally as some of them passed occasionally through Metsovo or Ioannina. This
was not the easiest way to provide for her family, given that revolution, plague and
the devaluation of currency made cash scarce and very expensive. In 1824 she lamented
that she could no longer find credit in Metsovo where nobody trusted her.
She therefore asked ‘friend’ and relative Stavros Ioannou, who at that time was in
Zagori, to advance her 300 grosia, assuring him that she would send him a receipt
and would pay him back the capital plus interest as soon as the money bequeathed
to her by her late husband had arrived in her hands 22 . In another of her letters she
mentions that she has bought 310 grosia from a certain Mr. Farsalou of Ioannina
and has paid 10 grosia interest 23 . Towards the end of her life she owed money to
Anastasios Tossizzas 24 .
Haido drew and signed bills that were paid by Mihail Vassiliou in Trieste. In the
meantime she collected the cash in Metsovo. In a letter sent to his sister on 24 June
1822 Mihail Vassiliou underlined: ‘...for your expenses I have already made arrangements
with my in-laws so that they won’t let you in hardship...and when I will meet
them again I will talk to them and take care of my duty ...’ 25 . Although she occasionally
received cash from her brother Paschalis and her nephews Efstathios and Vassilios –
always with well-known merchants as intermediaries– it was her brother Mihail who
was mostly committed to finding a secure and steady way to dispatch her money. More
than once he asked ‘friends’ to assist him but not all of them responded positively because,
as he emphasized: ‘...the ways of each one of us, given the situation, are very
tight...’ 26 . One of the systems used by Mihail to forward money to his sister is revealed
in another of his letters. On 28 December 1823, he nominated Ioannis Rallis, who was
established in Ancona, as one of his main intermediaries to ensure the safe delivery of
money to Metsovo. Rallis would utilize his personal connections to dispatch money to
Haido who would draw a bill on Vassiliou and address it to Ancona. Rallis, in fact, gave
an order to Pavlos Melas –at that time in Corfu– to advance the cash to Haido 27 .
In 1823 Haido received 49 thaler reginia from Anastasios Ioannis Koniaris –the exchange
rate was one thaler to 6:20 grosia– and she gave him back a polizza she had
London 1987, p. 33. Also, on the variability of friendship, see R. Brain, Friends and Lovers,
London, 1977, pp. 12-20.
22 ΓΑΚ, 195, p. 115, 24 November 1824. It seems that Stavrou did not reply to her letter
and Haido thought that ‘he is not interested, as the money has been devaluated...”.
23 ΓΑΚ, 197, p. 30, 11 March 1823.
24 ΓΑΚ, 197, p. 164, 28 April 1824.
25 ΓΑΚ, 72β, p. 216, 24 June 1822.
26 ΓΑΚ, 72β, p. 37, 23 January 1822.
27 ΓΑΚ, 72γ, pp. 104-105, 28 December 1823.
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