in Zante, Cephalonia and Leucas, and in certain districts of
Acarnania and Aetolia; attempts to cultivate it elsewhere have
Currants.
generally proved unsuccessful. The history of the currant
industry has been a record of extraordinary vicissitudes.
Previously to 1877 the currant was exported solely for eating purposes,
the amounts for the years 1872 to 1877 being 70,766 tons, 71,222
tons, 76,210 tons, 72,916 tons, 86,947 tons, and 82,181 tons respectively.
In 1877, however, the French vineyards began to suffer
seriously from the phylloxera, and French wine producers were
obliged to have recourse to dried currants, which make an excellent
wine for blending purposes. The importation of currants into
France at once rose from 881 tons in 1877 to 20,999 tons in 1880,
and to 70,401 tons in 1889, or about 20,000 tons more than were
imported into England in that year. Meanwhile the total amount
of currants produced in Greece had nearly doubled in these thirteen
years. The country was seized with a mania for currant planting;
every other industry was neglected, and olive, orange and lemon
groves were cut down to make room for the more lucrative growth.
The currant growers, in order to increase their production as rapidly
as possible, had recourse to loans at a high rate of interest, and the
great profits which they made were devoted to further planting,
while the loans remained unpaid. A crisis followed rapidly. By
1891 the French vineyards had to a great extent recovered from the
disease, and wine producers in France began to clamour against the
competition of foreign wines and wine-producing raisins and currants.
The import duty on these was thereupon raised from 6 francs to 15
francs per 100 kilos, and was further increased in 1894 to 25
francs. The currant trade with France was thus extinguished; of a
crop averaging 160,000 tons, only some 110,000 now found a market.
Although a fresh opening for exportation was found in Russia, the
value of the fruit dropped from £15 to £5 per ton, a price scarcely
covering the cost of cultivation. In July 1895 the government
introduced a measure, since known as the Retention (παρακράτησις)
Law, by which it was enacted that every shipper should deliver
into depots provided by the government a weight of currants equivalent
to 15% of the amount which he intended to export. A later law
fixed the quantity to be retained by the state at 10%, which might
be increased to 20%, should a representative committee, meeting
every summer at Athens, so advise the government. The currants
thus taken over by the government cannot be exported unless they
are reduced to pulp, syrup or otherwise rendered unsuitable for
eating purposes; they may be sold locally for wine-making or distilling,
due precautions being taken that they are not used in any other
way. The price of exported currants is thus maintained at an artificial
figure. The Retention Law, which after 1895 was voted annually,
was passed for a period of ten years in 1899. This pernicious
measure, which is in defiance of all economic laws, perpetuates a
superfluous production, retards the development of other branches
of agriculture and burdens the government with vast accumulations
of an unmarketable commodity. It might excusably be adopted as
a temporary expedient to meet a pressing crisis, but as a permanent
system it can only prove detrimental to the country and the currant
growers themselves.
In 1899 a “Bank of Viticulture” was established at Patras for the purpose of assisting the growers, to whom it was bound to make advances at a low rate of interest; it undertook the storage and the sale of the retained fruit, from which its capital was derived. The bank soon found itself burdened with an enormous unsaleable stock, while its loans for the most part remained unpaid; meantime over-production, the cause of the trouble, continued to increase, and prices further diminished. In 1903 a syndicate of English and other foreign capitalists made proposals for a monopoly of the export, guaranteeing fixed prices to the growers. The scheme, which conflicted with Anglo-Greek commercial conventions, was rejected by the Theotokis ministry; serious disturbances followed in the currant-growing districts, and M. Theotokis resigned. His successor, M. Rallis, in order to appease the cultivators, arranged that the Currant Bank should offer them fixed minimum prices for the various growths, and guaranteed it a loan of 6,000,000 dr. The resources of the bank, however, gave out before the end of the season, and prices pursued their downward course. Another experiment was then tried; the export duty (15%) was made payable in kind, the retention quota being thus practically raised from 20 to 35%. The only result of this measure was a diminution of the export; in the spring of 1905 prices fell very low and the growers began to despair. A syndicate of banks and capitalists then came forward, which introduced the system now in operation. A privileged company was formed which obtained a charter from the government for twenty years, during which period the retention and export duties are maintained at the fixed rates of 20 and 15% respectively. The company aims at keeping up the prices of the marketable qualities by employing profitably for industrial purposes the unexported surplus and retained inferior qualities; it pays to the state 4,000,000 dr. annually under the head of export duty; offers all growers at the beginning of each agricultural year a fixed price of 115 dr. per 1000 Venetian ℔ irrespective of quality, and pays a price varying from 115 dr. to 145 dr. according to quality at the end of the year for the unexported surplus. In return for these advantages to the growers the company is entitled to receive 7 dr. on every 1000 ℔ of currants produced and to dispose of the whole retained amount. A special company has been formed for the conversion of the superfluous product into spirit, wine, &c. The system may perhaps prove commercially remunerative, but it penalizes the producers of the better growths in order to provide a livelihood for the growers of inferior and unmarketable kinds and protracts an abnormal situation. The following table gives the annual currant crop from 1877 to 1905:—
| Year. | Total crop (tons). |
Exported to Gt. Britain. |
Exported to France. |
| 1877 | 82,181 | .. | 881 |
| 1878 | 100,004 | .. | 9,086 |
| 1879 | 92,311 | .. | 19,087 |
| 1880 | 92,337 | .. | 20,999 |
| 1881 | 121,994 | .. | 30,315 |
| 1882 | 109,403 | 51,933 | 26,282 |
| 1883 | 114,980 | 52,099 | 24,815 |
| 1884 | 129,268 | 59,629 | 39,198 |
| 1885 | 113,287 | 55,765 | 37,730 |
| 1886 | 127,570 | 48,892 | 45,000 |
| 1887 | 127,160 | 55,549 | 37,438 |
| 1888 | 158,728 | 63,714 | 40,735 |
| 1889 | 142,308 | 52,251 | 69,555 |
| 1890 | 146,749 | 67,502 | 37,816 |
| 1891 | 161,545 | 70,762 | 39,712 |
| 1892 | 116,944 | 60,418 | 21,721 |
| 1893 | 119,886 | 73,000 | 6,800 |
| 1894 | 135,500 | 64,500 | 15,000 |
| 1895 | 167,695 | 60,500 | 26,500 |
| 1896 | 153,514 | 65,000 | 6,500 |
| 1897 | 115,730 | 63,000 | 2,000 |
| 1898 | 153,514 | 69,500 | 6,000 |
| 1899 | 144,071 | 65,600 | 3,800 |
| 1900 | 47,236 | 36,000 | 300 |
| 1901 | 139,820 | 58,000 | 1,216 |
| 1902 | 152,580 | 58,400 | 4,782 |
| 1903 | 179,499 | 54,800 | 4,470 |
| 1904 | 146,500 | 58,850 | 820 |
| 1905 | 162,957 | 61,700 | 1,042 |
The “peronospora,” a species of white blight, first caused considerable damage in the Greek vineyards in 1892, recurring in 1897 and 1900.
More than half the cultivable area of Greece is devoted to pasturage. Cattle-rearing, as a rule, is a distinct occupation from agricultural farming; the herds are sent to pasture on the mountains in the summer, and return to the plains at the beginning of winter. The larger cattle are comparatively Stock-farming. rare, being kept almost exclusively for agricultural labour; the smaller are very abundant. Beef is scarcely eaten in Greece, the milk of cows is rarely drunk and butter is almost unknown. Cheese, a staple article of diet, is made from the milk of sheep and goats. The number of larger cattle has declined in recent years; that of the smaller has increased. The native breed of oxen is small; buffaloes are seldom seen except in north-western Thessaly; a few camels are used in the neighbourhood of Parnassus. The Thessalian breed of horses, small but sturdy and enduring, can hardly be taken to represent the celebrated chargers of antiquity. Mules are much employed in the mountainous districts; the best type of these animals is found in the islands. The flocks of long-horned sheep and goats add a picturesque feature to Greek rural scenery. The goats are more numerous in proportion to the population than in any other European country (137 per 100 inhabitants). The shepherds’ dogs rival those of Bulgaria in ferocity. According to an unofficial estimate published in 1905 the numbers of the various domestic animals in 1899 were as follows: Oxen and buffaloes, 408,744; horses, 157,068; mules, 88,869; donkeys, 141,174; camels, 51; sheep, 4,568,151; goats, 3,339,439; pigs, 79,716. During the four years 1899–1902 the annual average value of imported cattle was 4,218,015 dr., of exported cattle 209,321 dr.
The forest area (about 2,500,000 acres or one-fifth of the surface of the mainland) is for the most part state property. The value of the forests has been estimated at 200,000,000 fr.; the most productive are in the district extending from the Pindus range to the Gulf of Corinth. The principal trees are the Forests. oak (about 30 varieties), the various coniferae, the chestnut, maple, elm, beech, alder, cornel and arbutus. In Greece, as in other lands formerly subject to Turkish rule, the forests are not only neglected, but often deliberately destroyed; this great source of national wealth is thus continually diminishing. Every year immense forest fires may be seen raging in the mountains, and many of the most picturesque districts in the country are converted into desolate wildernesses. These conflagrations are mainly the work of shepherds eager to provide increased pasturage for their flocks; they are sometimes, however, due to the carelessness of smokers, and occasionally, it is said, to spontaneous ignition in hot weather. Great damage is also done by the goats, which browse on the young saplings; the pine trees are much injured by the practice of scoring their bark for resin. With the disappearance of the trees the soil of the mountain slopes, deprived of its natural protection, is soon washed away
