Economy

The Economy category is our largest collection and consists of 2,196 telegrams. It contains messages that pertain to economic life in Greece from 1859 to 1980. As would be expected, most of the telegrams have to do with commercial transactions. Besides, trade and financial activities were the foremost reasons behind the global spread of telegraphy, as the speed of telegrams served the needs of merchants for fast and timely information. It is no accident that the earliest telegram in the collection was sent by merchant and banker Stamatios Dekozis Vouros from Istanbul to Athens, just a few months after the establishment of the telegraph service in Greece, in July 1859, and that it concerns loading and shipping wheat.

The main issues raised are product demand, means of transport, wiring money, and the need for immediate communication. There are various cases ranging from the purchase of the bank of Chios to agricultural potato production in the 1960s. However, the main body of telegrams is from the Interwar period and the 1940s and 1950s. They are sent to the ‘Ergoliptiki’ and ‘Geoexport’ companies, which were active in the construction and exports sectors, respectively. Lastly, the telegrams from the archive of Alexandros Mavros (1852-1916), a leather merchant, are of particular interest, as his activities spanned a broad network, ranging from Egypt to Liverpool and Antwerp. Most of these telegrams bear the seal of the Ottoman telegraph office.