GERASSIMOS PAGRATIS
University of Athens
The Consulates of the Septinsular Republic (18001807) in Sicily
The advance of Napoleon’s army to the East, in 1797, ended the
Venetians’ sovereignty in the Ionian Sea, a sovereignty that had lasted for
some four hundred years. This area acquired political unity for the first
time in its modern history, when, in 1800, thanks to the international
diplomatic game, the Septinsular Republic was founded. The creation of
this state was made possible by the transient identity of interests of
Russia and the Ottoman Empire, which were also guarantors of its
function, aided and abetted by Great Britain.
This development was of decisive importance for Ionian merchant
shipping, for three main reasons:
Firstly, the Ionian islanders had secured their defence and national
integrity.
Secondly, the Russians and the Ottomans undertook to protect
Ionian shipping in various ways. The Russians, already since 1774, had
permitted the Greeks to fly the Russian flag and have access to the grainexporting harbours on the north coast of the Black Sea, where numerous
Greek communities had settled. The Ionian islanders, moreover, were
able to count on the services of the Russian consular authorities wherever
they had no representative of their own.
The Ottomans, on the other hand, had assumed the obligation of
protecting the islands’ ships and the merchants who were active in
harbours of the Empire’s territory, mainly in the Barbary States of North
Africa. It was to protect Ionian vessels from the Barbary corsairs that
their captains were supplied not only with the Regia Patente but also with
a firman signed by the sultan.
The third comparative advantage of Ionian shipping was the
neutrality kept by the Septinsular Republic in the wars of this period,
initially between Britain and France (1803) and subsequently between
France and Russia (1806).
Ionian sea captains (and the Greeks in general) exploited the FrancoBritish conflict and the consequent withdrawal of these countries’ ships
from the Levant, and took over the transport of cargoes from the Ottoman
Empire to the ports of Italy and Malta, and vice-versa, without great
competition.
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Circumstances were particularly favourable for the Ionian Islanders
to apply what they had been taught in the years of Venetian domination:
that is, the development of commercial and maritime enterprises in a
strictly protectionist regime.
The Consulates of the Septinsular Republic
So they formed the appropriate institutional framework for the
smooth operation of trade and shipping, and constituted a dense network
of consulates, set up on the traces of the previous Venetian consular map.
The developments described briefly above acquire special
importance if we consider that for the first time in modern Greek history,
Greek merchants, ship owners and seamen, became masters in their own
space and were subject consciously to the protection and the
encouragement of State policy.
Within this favourable clime, there developed in the Ionian Islands a
mercantile fleet of unprecedented size for the place, consisting of 441
ships, of total capacity 56.959 tons and average capacity 132 tons.
In the present paper, which is part of a wider research project on the
history of merchant shipping in the Ionian Islands during the Napoleonic
Wars, we shall examine some aspects of the operation of the Septinsular
Republic’s consulates in Sicily. These consulates are included in a very
wide network of representation of the Ionian Islands, which spread over
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most of the Mediterranean, and beyond. Apart from the special envoys of
the Septinsular Republic in Instanbul, Paris and Saint Peterburg, there
are:
-General Consolates in: Smirna, Palermo, Lecce, Patras, Arta ecc. and
-Consolates in: Trieste, Naples, Venice, Leghorn, Genoa, Otranto, Malta,
Barletta, Missolonghi, Thessaloniki, Prevesa, Chios, Odessa, Aleppo,
Athens ecc.
The General Consulate of the Septinsular Republic in Sicily began
operating in 1801, based in Palermo and with Baron Antonio Genzardi as
General Consul. From this position, Genzardi was responsible for
appointing sub-consuls and agents, to serve the Republic’s citizens and
particularly the captains and crews who came into the region of his
jurisdiction. More analytically, he appointed sub-consuls:
1) in Palermo, don Luciano Greco and, the Greek, Constantinos
Adamos,
2) in the port of Messina, the Greek merchant Nicolaos Varvessis.
3) in Trapani, don Antonino Greco, father of Luciano Greco. The
same person was vice-consul of the Ottoman Impire,
4) in Marina of Tuja (or Tusa), don Giuseppe Tantillo,
5) in Milazzo, don Pasquale Riolo,
6) in the port of Sciacca, (caricatore e spiaggia), don Giuseppe
Friscia,
7) in the port of Terranova, don Gaspare Tedesco,
8) in Acireale, don Francesco Trinomi,
9) in Catania, don Giovanni Danielo.
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The mapping of the sub-consulates shows that Genzardi made
provision for coverage in all Sicilian harbours (échélles) into which an
Ionian ship might possibly sail.
It is not known why Palermo was chosen as seat of the General
Consulate and not Messina, where other powers (Ottoman Empire,
Russia, Austria, etc.) maintained corresponding services. We suspect that
the reasons were administrative, but also geographical. That is, they were
associated with the more advantageous location of Palermo in relation to
Naples, which was the seat of the Bourbons.
Of the services that the consuls provided, what concerns us most
here was the facilitation of Ionian merchant shipping, which was also
their most important responsibility.
The first ships flying the flag of the Septinsular Republic sailed into
the harbour of Messina in 1802 and the last one in 1807, the year of the
state’s dissolution. In all, there were 67 arrivals/departures, with slight
fluctuations annually, peaking in the year 1806, which was followed by
the year with the least number of ships, 1807.
year
number of
%
arrives/departures
1802
14
20,8
1803
12
17,9
1804
10
14,9
1805
11
16,4
1806
19
28,3
1807
1
1,4
TOTAL
67
100
Table 1. Arrives/departures of Ionian ships in Sicily
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The main role of Sicily, or more precisely of the port of Messina, for
Septinsular ships (76%) was that of intermediate port of call. A role that
was to be expected and was obviously due both to the advantageous
geographical location of Messina and the facilities it provided as a porto
franco.
In general, the departure harbours of the Ionian ships for which
Sicily was an intermediate port of call or the final destination were very
varied. Nonetheless, the superiority of the harbours of the Levant is clear,
accounting for 74% of cases, as opposed to 26% of those of the West.
The East as a starting point for the voyages of Ionian ships refers:
-mainly (53%) to the Ionian Sea (Ζakynthos, Cephalonia, Corfu,
Gulf of Lepant, Kythira).
-to Constantinople and the Black Sea (Tangarok, Odessa), (28%),
-and last, the Aegean Sea and Cyprus (19%).
The Ionian islanders who began their voyages from the Levante and
for whom Sicily was an intermediate port of call or the final destination,
were importing to Sicily, as a rule, agricultural produce of the East (grain,
currants, etc.) and to a lesser degree raw materials (acorns, sponges) for
the operation of the manufactories of the West.
Departure ports of Ionian ships in Levant and imports in Messina
Place
n.
%
Commodities
Ionian
Sea
(Zakynthos, 17 53
tar & raisins (Gulf of Lepant), barley
Cephalonia, Gulf of Lepant,
(Zakynthos, Cephalonia), wheat (Cephalonia),
Kythira)
maize (Cephalonia), iron (Zakynthos)
Istanbul-Black
Sea 9
28
wheat
(Tangarok, Odessa)
Aegean Sea (Maratonissi, 6
19
sponges (Rodes), acorns (Maratonissi), barley
Scala Nova, Chios) –Cyprus
(Cyprus)
TOTAL
32 100
When the Ionian ships departed from a harbour in the West, this was:
Leghorn, Barcelona, Tarragona, Naples, Marseilles, Tunis and Lungone.
From these regions the Ionian islanders imported to Sicily colonial
products (sugar and coffee from Livorno) and hides (from Barcelona).
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Departure ports of the Ionian ships in “West” and imports in Messina
place
number
%
commodities
Leghorn
3
27
sugar and coffee
Barcelona-Tarragona
3
27
sole di Spagna
Naples
2
18
Marseilles
1
9
Tunis
1
9
Lungone
1
9
TOTAL
11
100
All other products were simply transshipped via Messina to other
ports.
When Ionian ships used the Sicilian harbours as intermediate ports of
call, the final destination of their voyage was:
-64%, harbours in the East (mainly the Ionian Islands, the
homeport of 18 of these 25 voyages).
-26%, ports in the West, and last,
-10%, ports on the east coast of Italy.
The ports of Sicily exported to both East and West, mainly
agricultural products (lemons, lemon juice, wheat, split peas, etc.), as well
as few semi-processed goods, such as staves for casks, cotton yarn and
soda.
Port
Messina
Messina
Messina
Messina
Catania
Trapani
Exports from the ports of Sicily
Commodities
Destination
sardine, codfish, sugar
Zakynthos
sugar from Havana,
Levant
lemons
wood, wheat, fava beans Naples
soda (cenere), lemon Leghorn
juice, cotton, cotton
yarn, wine malmsey
(malvasia)
soda
Canea
Salt
Ancona
From the total mapping of Ionian trade it becomes clear that the arena
of the Ionian fleet’s activity was the Eastern Mediterranean, in which
Ionian ships were carriers of agricultural produce from the Black Sea and
the Aegean Islands to the Ionian Islands, as well as to the transit-trade
ports of Italy and Malta. This last zone was probably the western
boundary of the Ionian islanders, and of the Greek mercantile fleet in
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general. There the products of the East were loaded onto larger ships of
Western European countries, to continue their voyage to the markets of
western and northern Europe.
The favourable conjuncture of the demand for Black Sea grain and
foodstuffs in general from the Levant, in a Europe plagued by wars, the
Septinsular Republic’s policy of encouraging trade, the technical
possibilities and the existence of accumulated capital, were all reasons
underlying the formation of one of the most important mercantile fleets in
the Eastern Mediterranean at that time.
Beyond analysing the capacity of the Ionian fleet, the geography and
the object of its activities, we hope that on completion of this present
research project we shall be able to answer questions concerning Greek
merchant shipping as a whole, such as the reciprocal relationship between
shipping and the socio-economic system, in which it was in any case
incorporated, the organizational framework of Ionian maritime trade, and
last, the continuities or discontinuities in the persons and methods
accompanying the practice of shipping activities.
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