Séminaire ouvert d’histoire économique / Ανοιχτό σεμινάριο οικονομικής ιστορίας
Imagined Markets: European Bankers and Greece in the 19th Century
Korinna Schönhärl Πανεπιστήμιο Κρήτης
Archives Historiques de l’Université d’Athènes, Skoufa 45 / Ιστορικό Αρχείο Πανεπιστημίου Αθηνών, Σκουφά 45
Σε συνεργασία με την Alpha BankProgramme 2018-2019
How did bankers of the 19th century make their investment decisions? What did their risk perception look like, and how did they try to manage risks? These questions matter especially concerning high-risk financial markets such as the kingdom of Greece, established in the 1820s. Why did some European bankers decide to invest their money here despite limited expectations of profit? Μy book examined the decision-making processes of bankers in Greece in my book “Imagined markets. European bankers and Greece in the 19th century” (in German, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2017). My case studies deal with the loans of independence in the 1820s, the foundation of the National Bank by Jean Gabriel Eynard, the investments of the family bank Eichthal, the Greek loans of the 1880s, the construction of the Canal of Corinth, the Lake Copais Company and the institutionalization of the raisin trade, to mention but a few. My thesis is that beside the attempt to maximize profits, factors like networks, brokers and also imaginations of Greece were meaningful for bankers’ (positive or negative) investment decisions. In this presentation, I shall examine European investment in the mines of Lavrion in the 1860s, considering preceding and resulting imaginations of Greece as an investment market in the country itself and in Europe. In doing so, I shall combine the perspectives of financial, economic and cultural history.
Assistante administrative pour la Direction des Études
sophia.zoumboulaki@efa.gr
+ 30 210 36 79 904Nolwenn Grémillet
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