Thessaloniki’s commerce 1870-1970. An introduction to the commercial history and geography of the city

Thessaloniki’s commerce 1870-1970. An introduction to the commercial history and geography of the city

Evangelos Chekimoglou
Athens 2022, 364 pp., 199 ill.
ISBN 978-960-244-221-0
€ 55,00



The publication titled Thessaloniki’s commerce 1870-1970. An introduction to the commercial history and geography of the city, by Evangelos Chekimoglou, Phd in Economic History, is the outcome of an extensive research undertaken by the author. The book draws upon the exhibition titled “Thessaloniki Emporion 1870-1970”, presented by PIOP in Thessaloniki in 2017, on the centennial of the 1917 fire in the city. The author enriched the original research, delivering a complex and thorough work, valuable for the scientific community but also very useful for the general public.

The publication records and illuminates the evolution of the economic geography of Thessaloniki, the topography of trade and crafts, the city's openness to new influences, the adaptation to the historical transitions or turning points during the century that is studied here. Some of the topics addressed include sea and land trade routes, import and export trade, investment and transport, the formation of commercial markets and craft neighborhoods, land and property use and ownership changes and alterations, the concentration of workshops and commercial shops by neighborhood, socialization through day to day retail trade, and the evolution of consumption habits.

The city’s commercial history is “interpreted” in correlation with significant historical events: the last decades of Turkish rule, the Balkan Wars and Thessaloniki’s integration to the Greek State, the 1917 fire, the refugees arriving after the Asia Minor Catastrophe, the German Occupation and the almost total extermination of the city’s Jewish community, the gradual normalization of economic and daily life after the 1950s, the changes in lifestyles during the 1960s, the presence of the Thessaloniki International Fair over time.

The statistical evidence in the book and the rich photographic material “converse” with the text, document the research and highlight the wide range of economic life and commercial topography in Thessaloniki.