The Greek merchants and usurers in Wallachia during the second and third decades of the 17th century
The Greek merchants and usurers in Wallachia during the second and third decades of the 17th century

Summary/Abstract: The restoration the Ottoman domination over Wallachia since 1611 had important consequences regarding the economic and social development of major cities in this Romanian Principality situated between Danube and the Carpathians. Thus, in the second and third decades of the Seventeenth century, permanent fairs in Bucharest, Târgovişte, Craiova, Târgu-Jiu, Argeş and Câmpulung were thronged with foreign merchants, especially Greeks, who came from the Ottoman Empire. Using the acquired capital gained from merchant activities and usury, some of them managed to acquire properties in variable length, vineyards and orchards in different districts of Wallachia, shops, house lands and gardens in the most important cities. Others even managed to acquire the status of indigenati through matrimonial ties established with the members of inland manorial and urban families. The current article attempts to reveal the ways used by the Greek merchants and usurers, once arrived in Wallachia in the years 1611–1631, to engage in trade and economic activities of major cities, and also the degree of involvement and infiltration of some of them in the economic, political and social structures of the country.

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