o_19heefouak9i9v4do11ac41pi7a.pdf

ANTONELLA VIOLA
freedom when it came to the local market. The freedom enjoyed by agents and offices
throughout the subcontinent suggests that the business organization of these firms was
in some cases even less hierarchical than the typical Greek Diaspora companies 35 . This
is not surprising: the Indian market with its rules and business practices required a specialized
knowledge that only the local branch offices and locally trained managers and
employees could gain, master and then use for the firm’s benefit. Moreover the seasonal
nature of many products that characterized the Indian market made flexibility a necessary
prerequisite for trading companies to work efficiently and be competitive. This explains
why the vast majority of Greek firms in India were highly independent in terms
of decision-making and strategies from the mother-house which was too far away to be
of any help. In a market where timing was crucial, to report to the European headquarters,
for instance, would have simply been a waste of time, as communication was slow
and unreliable (a reply from England would have taken almost a year to reach India).
Things started changing only in the second half of the nineteenth century. When London
and India were linked by cable in 1868-69 36 , and telegraphic services were made
available, communication between the branch offices and the home-office became faster,
and the latter could be quickly informed about purchases, sales, prices and market
trends. But before that, managers on the spot were in the position of taking virtually
every type of decision, and their power in terms of the decision-making processes and
strategy planning was very high. This is why it was considered crucial to have trustworthy
people as the firm’s managers. From this point of view family ties between
owners and agents were regarded as the best guarantee against misconduct and cheating.
Trust created through enduring family ties secured trustworthiness and honesty in
agents. The combination of trust, solidarity and cooperation made Greek economic and
commercial activities, especially those handled by the Greek Traders Coalition 37 , very
successful.
Conclusions
The previous section set out a brief profile of the Greek companies in India. The
profile is not exhaustive and is based on a rather limited amount of primary sources
–as already pointed out the topic is dramatically under-researched. However it provides
us with sufficient information to pose a set of questions about how these economic
actors are to be studied. Shall we consider Greek traders in India as a Dias-
35 Ioannides, S., and Pepelais Minoglou, I., ‘Diaspora Entrepreneurship: Some Theoretical
and Historical Insights from the Greek Experience’, in Cassis, Y. and Pepelais Minoglou, I.
(eds), Entrepreneurship in Theory and History, New York, 2005.
36 Submerged telegraph cables were firstly operationalized in 1864 but due to the intensity
of traffic they were ineffective and were soon replaced by new ones in 1868-69.
37 Minoglou Pepelasis, I., ‘The Greek Merchant House of the Russian Black Sea. A nineteenth
century example of Traders’ Coalition’, in International Journal of Maritime History, Vol.
10, No. 1, pp. 61-104, 1998, and ‘Toward a typology of Greek-Diaspora entrepreneurship’, in
Mc Cabe, I., B., Harlaftis, G., and Pepelasis Minoglou, I. (eds), 2005, op.cit.
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