At the end of the nineteenth century the Arvanitidis and Sideridis families were found to have settled in Constantinople. They were merchant families who from the 1870s were also occupied with navigation and shipping, especially with the transportation of petroleum from Batumi. The shipping activity of the Sideridis family ceased in 1914 whilst that of the Arvanitidis family after 1930.

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The European Danube Commission (Ευρωπαϊκή Επιτροπή Δουνάβεως, Commission Européenne du Danube) was established in 1856, following the decision of the Paris Convention, in order to see to the carrying out of the major works at the mouth of the river (Sulina). Apart from the dredging of the mouth, the commission constructed a large port in the city of Sulina as well as a hospital. After the Second World War the commission was dissolved.

During the 19th century, the Balkan coast of the Black Sea constituted the second most important grain export region in the area and along with the export regions on the northern and eastern coast, the area became the greatest export centre in the world and Europe’s bread basket. Greek Diaspora merchants, mainly located in Danubian ports, in collaboration with shipping enterprises founded on the Ionian and Aegean islands, developed corporative networks that imported immense quantities of grain...

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This region includes the Black Sea coasts of Novorossiya (New Russia), which during the 19th century became the granary of Europe. The Greek merchants of the diaspora who had settled in the merchant colonies of the main harbours of the Black Sea, the Mediterranean and Northern Europe, in collaboration with the Greek nautical enterprises of the Ionian and the Aegean islands, developed enterprising networks which transported huge amounts of grain to the industrializing Europe.

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Many of the Greeks that located in Odessa founded powerful commercial and shipping houses taking advantage of the rapid growth of the city, which was founded in 1794. Greek entrepreneurial activity marked Odessa’s evolution into the most significant port of the Black Sea. Most of the Greek marine insurance companies were successful and dominated financially at least until the middle of the 19th century.

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The middle strata of the Greek Diaspora of the most important cities of southern Russia (Odessa, Taganrog and Rostov) comprised approximately 45% of the total number of Greeks and also, played a significant role, substituting for the extremely weak Russian urban class of the region. Parallel to this, many, especially in Odessa, were labourers, domestic servants and conveyors, thus revealing that at the end of the 19th century a large proportion of the Greek population (around 40%) occupied the...