ABSTRACT
Financial business in Greece was led by banks from Switzerland, France, Great Britain, Bavaria and – after 1871 – the German Empire; this sets the geographical framework for the investors. In terms of the area of investments, research is limited to the territory of the Greek state, which slowly increased in size throughout the nineteenth century. ‘Classic’ banking history would tend to focus on profit rates and risk premiums when answering this question. Traditional accounts of banking history assume that nineteenth-century bankers adopted a utility maximisation approach to investment projects and assessed the potential profits in order to decide whether to accept or reject a specific project. The majority of European bankers perceived Greece as a potential financial market, albeit a risky one. However, pronounced contrasts in Western European perceptions of the country render it particularly interesting with regard to the cultural dimension of financial transfers.
