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GREEK TRADERS IN BRITISH INDIA, 1840-1920
Great Britain where most of them settled. 6 Among these traders were the Rallis,
the Argentis, the Schilizzis, the Sechiaris, the Mavrojanis, the Petrococchinos and
others. 7 It is interesting to note that Chiot merchants had their first contacts with
India as early as the sixteenth century, if not before, when under the domination
of Genoa (the island of Chios was subjected to Genoese rule from the thirteenth to
the sixteenth centuries) they entered the Portuguese trading networks in the Indian
Ocean due to the close financial and commercial relations that Genoese traders
had established with the Portuguese crown and the city of Lisbon. 8
Based in London, Liverpool, and Manchester, the Anglo-Greek companies
moved to India in the wake of other British private trading companies, taking advantage
of the expiration of the East India Company’s monopoly. 9 The interest in
India that Anglo-Greek companies increasingly showed can be ascribed to the fact
that the country was one of Britain’s largest customers and the chief recipient of
British overseas investments after Europe. India was, in fact, the hub of the international
trade system built by Great Britain in the nineteenth century, and its importance
as one of the major targets for British interests is reflected in the growing
number of British firms which established themselves on the subcontinent
throughout the century. A quick look at the Indian commercial directories –
6 On the role of traders from Chios in the Greek maritime Diaspora, see Harlaftis, G.,
‘Trade and shipping in the nineteenth century: the entrepreneurial network of the Diaspora
Greeks, the Chiot Phase (1830-1860)’, in Mnimon (ΜΝΗΜΩΝ), 15, 1993 (in Greek); ‘Mapping
the Greek Maritime Diaspora from the Early Eighteenth to the Late twentieth Centuries’,
in Mc Cabe, I. B., Harlaftis, G., and Pepelasis Minoglou, I. (eds), Diaspora Entrepreneurial Networks.
Four centuries of History, Oxford, 2005.
7 Argenti, Philippe Pandely, Libro d’oro de la noblesse de Chio, London, 1955.
8 Nicolo Petrococchino (spelled in the Italian and Portuguese sources as Pietro Coccino or
Petrococcino), originally from Chios but often considered as being Genoese, was a very
prominent merchant active in the Estado da Índia in the sixteenth century. In 1578 he became
Provedor da Casa da India (treasurer of the House of India) in Lisbon; in 1582 he was appointed
vedor da fazenda de Cochim (chief officer in the Portuguese factory at Cochin on the
Malabar coast) and moved to India. After his return to Portugal in the 1590s he was once
again put in charge of the Casa da India. Petrococchino was a very well-known figure in his
time; the Genoese historian Geronimo de Franchi Conestaggio dedicated to Petrococchino one
of his works: A Nicolo Petrococcino proveditor di Casa D’India. Relatione dell’apparecchio per
sorprendere Algieri (Genova, 1601). I am indebted to Nunziatella Alessandrini for providing me
with relevant information about Nicolò Petrococchino. See Alessandrini, N., Os Italianos na
Lisboa de 1500 a 1680: das hegemonias florentinas às genovesas, PhD Thesis, Universidade
Aberta, Lisbon, 2009.
9 The royal charter granted to the EIC expired in 1813, and was renewed, with some significant
modifications, until 1833. As soon as the company’s monopoly started to become
eroded and private business was allowed, British private firms began to establish themselves
in India. In spite of the significant increase in the number of private firms which started operating
on the subcontinent, it must be noted that in the first decades of the nineteenth century
it was still crucial to have some connections with the East India Company to effectively
carry out commercial activities in India.
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