Abstracts
SAKIS GEKAS
Merchants into businessmen. Ionians before the 'Ionian' phase of Greek merchant networks
The paper explores how commercial legislation, new forms of business organization and novel commercial practices shaped a business culture in the Ionian Islands during the period of British rule (1815-1864). It was not cultural characteristics of any particular ethno-religious group but the changing institutional environment that facilitated the transition from what can be considered a "traditional' to a "modern' business culture. Without drawing too rigid a distinction between the two, the paper traces the changes around the middle of the nineteenth century which can be identified by looking at the Ionian Islands merchants and business world and their role in the European and specifically Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea economies. The novel business culture that developed in the Ionian Islands explains to an extent the "Ionian phase' of Greek-owned shipping in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. To this end the Ionian Islands are conceptualized as an intermediate economic and cultural space which accelerated the diffusion of business practices in the Eastern Mediterranean.
