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Railway construction and labour availability in Macedonia in the late nineteenth century*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Basil C. Gounaris
Basil C. Gounaris*
Affiliation:
St Antony’s College, Oxford
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Extract

By the early 1870s railway construction in Turkey, both Asiatic and European, was no longer a pioneering project. The Sublime Porte had already granted four concessions to British companies for railway lines in Asia Minor and in the Balkans. For more than one reason railways seemed to be a first class choice for raising the public revenue. They would open large areas to exploitation and would reinforce central government control over remote districts of the Empire. Naturally tax collection was expected to increase and cover a part of the country’s deficit. On the other hand, foreign capitalists and investors appeared to be willing to finance such enterprises, since faster transport in Turkey meant easier access to Ottoman sources of production and expansion of the distribution network. However, regardless of the long term economic benefits, railways were also a revolutionary innovation in the traditional rural economy and society of the Empire, both as a construction project and as a mode of transport.

Type
Articles
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 13 , 1989 , pp. 139 - 158
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 1989

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References

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8. PPAP 1870, lxvii, 853.

9. Ibid., 846. PPAP 1884, lxxxi, 244.

10. PPAP 1870, lxvi, 558–568; lxvii, 845–855.

11. Ibid., lxvi, 558, 566.

12. For the population movement to the highlands see Vacaloloulos, A.E., ‘La retraite des populations grecques vers des régions éloignées et montagneuses pendant la domination turque’, Balkan Studies 4 (1963) 265–276 Google Scholar. Elena Frangakis and Malcolm Wagstaff have argued convincingly that such a movement should not always be taken for granted, at least in the case of the Peloponnisos: ‘Settlement Pattern Change in the Morea, c.A.D. 1700–1830’, BMGS 11 (1987) 163–192. But, so far, it has not been proved that this was also the case in Macedonia.

13. PPAP 1870, lxvi, 558–559, 565–568; lxvii, 848.

14. Ibid., lxvi, 568. A similar report was given by the British Consul in Monastir, Charles J. Calvert (PPAP 1870, lxvi, 565–566).

15. For the previous attempts see FO 195/647, Memorandum relative to projected railway between Salonica and Monastir. Annex to Longworth to Bulwer, Monastir, 25 Jan. 1859, ff.309–312. PPAP 1866, lxix, 192.

16. An excellent account of railway construction in the Ottoman provinces in Europe and the texts of the conventions are given by Young, George, Corps de droit Ottoman, iv (Oxford 1906) 62–117.Google Scholar

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18. Dimtschoff, Radoslave M., Das Eisenbanwesen auf der Balkan-Halbinsel (Bamberg 1894) 44.Google Scholar

19. See PPAP 1866–1872. Later on, during the construction of the Hijaz railway, Ottoman troops were also used as navvies. They were volunteers and worked without payment on the promise that their military service would be reduced by two years. See Ochsenwald, William, The Hijaz Railroad (Charlottesville 1980) 37.Google Scholar

20. Mrs. Blunt, doubtless the author of The People of Turkey, claims (i, 203) that the Italians were sent away as inferior to the native labourers. Ignjat Krsteski, ‘Proektiranje i gradenje na zheleznitsite vo Makedonija do 1912 godnia’ [Railway Planning and Construction in Macedonia until 1912] in Istorija na zheleznitsite vo Makedonija, 1873–1973 [History of the Railways in Macedonia, 1873–1973], ed. Bitoski, Krste (Skopje 1973) 34 Google Scholar. FO 195/952, Wilkinson to Elliot, Salonica, 13 Feb. 1871, f.174. AMAE, CCC Salonique, vol. 27, Emerat to de Remusat, 15 Apr. 1872, ff.48–56.

21. PPAP 1874, lxvi, 509–510. Krsteski, Proektiranje, art.cit., 34.

22. PPAP 1887, lxxxii, 676.

23. Loc.cit. AMAE, CCC Salonique, vol. 28, de Sainte Marie to Ministre, 16 Aug. 1885, f.278.

24. During the same years Italians were also engaged in large numbers in railway construction in Greece and Serbia ( Agriantoni, Christina, Oi aparches tis ekviomichanisis stin Ellada ton 19o aiona [The Commencement of Industrialisation in Greece in the 19th Century] (Athens,1986) 292–293 Google Scholar. Laveleye, Emile de, The Balkan Peninsula (translated by Mrs.Thorpe, Mary) (rev.edn., London 1887) 219.Google Scholar

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27. Pharos tis Makedonias, 1601/2/14 May 1892. Colmar Goltz, Freiherr von der, Ein Ausflug nach Macedonien. Besuch der deutschen Eisenbahn von Salonik nach Monastir (Berlin 1894) 137.Google Scholar

28. FO 195/1768, Blunt to Ford, Salonica, 26 Mar. 1892, ff.48–57. PPAP 1896, lxxxix, 77. PPAP 1890–91, lxxxviii, 231.

29. FO 195/1–768, Blunt to Ford, Salonica, 26 Mar. 1892, ff.48–57. Pharos tis Makedonias, 1601/2/14 Mar. 1892. PPAP 1893–94, xcvii, 230–231.

30. FO 195/1768, Blunt to Rosebery, Salonica, 10 Dec. 1892, ff. 355–356. Naumann, op.cit. (note 26 above) 12. Pharos tis Makedonias, 1684/28 July/9 Aug. 1893. PPAP 1893–94, xcvii, 247.

31. PPAP 1870, lxvi, 558.

32. For the growth of the prices see PPAP 1897, xciv, 137 and PPAP 1898, xcix, 317.

33. FO 195/1802, Pecchioli to Blunt, Kavala, 17 June 1893, f.156. FO 195/1849, Blunt to Currie, Salonica, 9 Apr. 1894, ff.60–62. FO 195/1849, Blunt to Currie, Salonica 3 Sept. 1894, ff.274–278.

34. Pharos tis Makedonias, 1721/26 Feb./9 Mar. 1894 and 1725/16/28 Mar. 1894. The term ‘Greeks’ is used in the columns of the newspaper for both citizens of the Greek state and native Greeks. PPAP 1896, lxxxix, 66.

35. BMAE, 1895, 306.

36. FO 195/1849, Blunt to Currie, Salonica, 9 Apr. 1894, ff.60–62; 3 Sept. 1894, ff.274–278.

37. PPAP 1870, lxvii, 852. Nicolaïdes, Cleanthès, La Macédoine. Le Question Macédonienne dans l’antiquité, au moyen-âge et dans la politique actuelle (Berlin 1899) 86.Google Scholar

38. PPAP 1874, lxvi, 510–511. PPAP 1875, lxxvii, 449–450. Road construction in connection with railway building had already become a widely popular demand (AMAE, CCC Salonique, vol. 27, Emerat to de Rémusat, 26 Jan. 1872, ff.15–21).

39. PPAP 1870, lxvi, 560, 567–568. PPAP 1874, lxvi, 509–510. The wages offered by the Italian company are compared to local wages of 1869 but a considerable increase in the meantime is unlikely to have taken place. The exchange rate in Salonica was roughly £1 for 110 piastra.

40. PPAP 1870, lxvii, 852. Desertion before the completion of the work was a common feature of railway construction in the Ottoman Empire. In Anatolia companies attempted to control the situation by dividing the labour force employed into gangs with a headman, who was responsible for the maintenance of the strength of his gang (Quartaert, Disintegration, 74–75). In British India labourers for railway construction were organised and employed on a family basis ( Westwood, J.N., Railways in India (Newton Abbot 1974) 31).Google Scholar

41. FO 195/952, Blunt to Elliot, Monastir, 6 July 1872, ff.607–613. It is worth mentioning that less than a year after the whole line was opened to traffic northern Albanian districts were already being brought under the influence and control of central government (FO 195/1065, Blunt to Elliot, Salonica, 17 Sept. 1875, ff.225–226).

42. To tackle the problem the authorities prohibited the export of livestock for six months (FO 195/1007, Blunt to Elliot, Salonica, 17 Feb. 1873, ff.82–83). A Muslim labourer which worked on the Constanta-Chernavoda line from 1856 to 1860 was able to save enough money to buy a house, six bullocks, three cows and a small flock of sheep (Barkley, Between the Danube, 105).

43. PPAP 1874, lxvii, 952.

44. Ibid., lxvi, 510.

45. PPAP 1875, lxxvii, 447–449. Drought and severe winters during the same period occurred not only in Macedonia but all over the Ottoman Empire together with earthquakes ( Davison, Roderic H., Reform in the Ottoman Empire (Princeton 1963) 301–304).Google Scholar

46. AMAE, CCC Salonique, vol. 27, Krajewski to Due Decazes, 31 July 1876, ff.297–312. FO 195/1065, Blunt to Elliot, Salonica, 27 Mar. 1875, ff.82–87.

47. Boué, Ami, Sur l’éstablissement de bonnes routes et surtout de chemins defer dans la Turquie d’Europe (Vienna 1852) 39 Google Scholar. PPAP 1870, lxvi, 558–559, 565.

48. PPAP 1870, lxvi, 560, 566–567. PPAP 1874, lxvi, 510.

49. Ibid., 502.

50. BMAE, 1898, 434.

51. PPAP 1872, lvii, 561. PPAP 1874, lxvii, 952.

52. Gould, J.D., ‘European Inter-Continental Emigration. The Road Home: Return Migration from the U.S.A.’, Journal of European Economic History 9 (1980) 76–77.Google Scholar