The first research, which records the English-language dictionaries and encyclopedias of the 18th and early 19th centuries, which refer to Thessaloniki, highlights the multicultural character of the city, a “mosaic of ethnicities”, as recorded by historians. Thessaloniki gathers a large number of merchants, consuls and diplomats, military, representatives of various religions, financial envoys of Western companies and travelers who capture the physiognomy of the city. One of the first references to the city of Thessaloniki is in Edmund Bohun’s Geographical Dictionary, published in 1688.
“Apart from the descriptions of the travelers, the researchers obtain information about the city of Thessaloniki from the first English-language encyclopedias and dictionaries that are widely circulated at this time in England and the United States of America and provide brief and mainly general information,” he said. at the Athenian / Macedonian News Agency Efstratios Vacharoglou, postdoctoral researcher / School of Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, on the occasion of his presentation at a scientific conference of the Ephorate of Antiquities in Thessaloniki. first half of the 19th century “.
Encyclopedias printed in Britain have more information about the city of Thessaloniki and even in economic terms, in contrast to those published in America, where the information is more general, geographical and historical interest.
The image of Thessaloniki in the West
“Although encyclopedias act as a ‘photographic lens’ because they capture the image of the city over a period of time, the information they provide is important to historians and researchers because it draws conclusions about information that interests the reading public at any given time.” the commercial, religious, economic, social ties of the states with the city of Thessaloniki as well as what image of the city is presented in the western states “, notes Mr. Vacharoglou.
During the period (1800-1852) he studied, the researcher recorded 46 encyclopedias and dictionaries along with reprints of the Britannica encyclopedia, which were published in England and the United States. Of the 46 encyclopedias and dictionaries, 11 were published in the United States, either in reprints of British encyclopedias or in stand-alone editions. Of all the publications, the Thessaloniki entry is found in 40 editions and reissues.
“History is given importance in combination with the antiquities of the city and its monuments, especially the religious ones that reach the limits of detail. The administration presents smaller records with references to the pasha (leader of the Muslims) and the bishop (leader of the Christians), while we have fewer reports to the catholic bishop. Finally, the architecture of the city is recorded, as well as the history of its name “, notes Mr. Vacharoglou.
Both in the early dictionary, entitled “The great historical, geographical, genealogical and poetical dictionary” published in 1701 by Jer. Collier in London, as well as Abraham Rees’s Encyclopedia “The Cyclopaedia or Universal Dictionary”, also published in London, highlight the trade and products traded by the locals, while the Jewish population seems to dominate the city’s economy – and not only. This is supported by the report that they are exempt from taxes, because they supply the city health services with a fabric for their clothes. It does not appear from the historical sources, although the Greeks participate in the trade privileges given by the Ottoman decrees to Jews and Franks, while the explanation given is that the priority of the Greeks at that time was their participation in the Revolution of 1821 and in the struggle for the release.
An important reference to the history of the city is also the operation of two Jewish colleges, with a great presence in the field of education, in which students from all parts of the Ottoman Empire studied.
The trade route
According to several sources, the trade route of the time started from Thessaloniki, passed through the regions of Bulgaria Vidin and Osovo (Kosovo) and continued to the Austrian Empire, ending in Vienna.
In the second edition of the A Geographical Dictionary, in 1823, in Boston, Joseph Emerson Worcester refers to the important trade of the city and even ranks it second in trade after Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire. Products that the city exports are cotton, tobacco, corn and wool.
In 1827, in the encyclopedia “Encyclopaedia Londinensis”, the author John Wilkes, an expert on Thessaloniki’s trade with Western countries, emphasizes that trade is conducted mainly by Greeks, Jews, and Franks.
The merchants are mainly French, Italian, English and Dutch, whose countries maintain consular offices for trade. He also describes the walls and location of the city and explains how much it helped the development of trade.
The products are mostly aimed at Western countries, while jewelry, luxury fabrics and other items of oriental clothing remain. This, according to the researcher, has to do with the fact that the goods are addressed to people from the Western world who now visit the city and because Turkish citizens are not particularly involved in trade.
Those who do not engage in trade belong to the lower economic classes and are employed as porters on the docks and in commercial offices. At the bottom of the city, towards the port, live the Franks, consisting of French and Germans.
Exit for the British the port of Thessaloniki
The reasons why trade developed in the city are recorded by John Ramsay McCulloch, an economist and expert on English trade. According to the researcher, the main reason is Napoleon’s anti-trade system and the embargo he imposed on British products, as well as the exclusion of ports from the movement of British products, with the result that Britain finds a way out of the port of Thessaloniki, from where transported its products to Germany, Russia and other parts of Europe, following trade agreements with the Ottoman Empire.
The trade includes imports -mainly cotton- from Britain, while exports consisted of silk and tobacco, wool, raw cotton, wheat and other cereals, flaxseed, as well as timber and walnuts from Mount Athos.
The population of the city
The “Geographical Dictionary” of 1823 records for the first time the population of Thessaloniki. The Turks come first in population, with 35,000 inhabitants, the second community the Greeks with 20,000, the Jews with 12,000 and the Franks with 3,000. Slavic presence “, notes Mr. Vacharoglou.
Different censuses of the population are reported in 1842, in the second volume of the encyclopedia “A Dictionary, Geographical, Statistical and Historical”, by JRMCulloch. He mentions that Mr. Walpole puts the population at 42,000, M. Beanjour at 60,000, and later at 70,000, of whom about three-fifths are Turks, and the rest are mostly Jews and Franks, with a few Greeks.
The monuments of Thessaloniki
At the archeological level most references are made to the city walls with the seven towers, the relics of the Hippodrome, the columns with the name Incantadas and the Arch of Galerius and Constantine as well as the Rotunda with the palaces of Galerius. From churches, the descriptions of Agios Dimitrios and Agia Sofia are impressive in detail, while it is emphasized “with relative discomfort”, as Mr. Vacharoglou states, “the conversion of the other Christian churches into mosques”.
The main sources
According to the researcher, the main sources of information for encyclopedists are the texts of the travelers DrHolland, Pococke, Dr. Clarke and Beaujour, for whom we have important information from the work of Evangelos Hekimoglou and Alexandros Grigoriou “The Thessaloniki of the travelers 1430-1930”. Mr. Vacharoglou’s research will continue throughout the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.
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