Santorini from the Late 19th Century to 1956

Instead of only relying on wine and shipping, other industries sprouted up ranging from tomato cultivation and tomato paste processing, to weaving, quarries, and the beginnings of the tourism industry. The reason for the structural change was because of a rapid decline in the price of Santorini wine. Throughout Europe, tastes of wine changed; there was increased demand for wines that were lower in alcohol, fruity, and not as sweet after the 1840’s (The Santorini of Santorini 1995, 70). The Vinsanto wine of Santorini was no longer preferred, in fact the sweet Greek wine that was so popular from the 16^th - the 1840’s, was reported to be only consumed by the lower classes of the late 19^th century (The Santorini of Santorini 1995, 70). Because Santorini wine was so expensive to produce, and the prices were so high, the wine industry was no longer economically viable. This decline in the market of Santorini wine, forced the shipping industry to look elsewhere, from Marseille to the Americas, but the prices of Santorini wine were considered far too expensive for the taste (The Santorini of Santorini 1995, 71). Many farmers decided to switch to growing tomatoes, that were far more profitable than the once in demand Santorini grapes. By the 1870’s due to the lack of profitable work because of the dispersal of so many vineyards, residents began leaving Santorini for Attica and Athens; those residents that stayed entered the new economic sectors.

Due to a change in prices and demand, agriculture was again the first industry to start diversifying in Santorini. In 1880, the widespread cultivation of tomatoes began (Santorini 2001). The tomatoes grown in Santorini were renowned for their sweet taste due to the lack of water, and thus could be marketed as one-of-a-kind throughout Greece. Tomato cultivation, like grapes, was a specialized affair, local farmers successfully learned to struggle with the un-compromising environment, and produced tomatoes out of desert like conditions. Local farmers and their families went as far as making their own tomato paste using the primitive yet environmentally feasible power of the sun. The tomato paste was first exported to Turkey and Egypt by 1902 (The Santorini of Santorini 1995). However despite the local innovations, the full-scale cultivation of tomatoes did not begin until after the first tomato paste-processing factory was built in 1929. After the processing factories were built, tomatoes could easily be packaged and shipped as an export good in the form of tomato paste. Before, due to the low yields of tomatoes, and the primitiveness of tomato processing, very few tomatoes and tomato products could be sent for export. One can easily understand how quickly tomatoes came into importance because of the export power of processing when one observes the cultivation numbers and yields of tomatoes. In 1931, 2,000 stremmas of tomatoes were cultivated, with a yield of 1,000,000 kilos (Santorini 2001, 480). Before 1931, only much smaller areas of land were used for tomato cultivation (Santorini 2001, 480). By 1949, 12,000 stremmas of tomatoes were cultivated, with a 7,000,000 kilo yield (Santorini 2001, 480). One can thus conclude that a large amount of tomatoes were grown because by 1949, there were 12 processing plants on the island.

Tomatoes weren’t the only agricultural good being grown for export; fava was also exploited for its uniqueness and thus desirability for export. Fava could claim higher prices as a unique good because of the dryness of the climate and soil, the fava grown in Santorini was sweeter than other fava’s cultivated throughout Greece. Fava became another product of cultural importance due to the specific knowledge needed to cultivate such a plant in such an unforgiving climate. The unique fava bean of Santorini has a long history on the island, it is called Lathyrus Climenium, and according to DNA testing was the same strain of fava bean that was found at Akrotiri in 1500 B.C. In 1850 jut 450 stremmas were used for the cultivation of fava, with a yield of just 44,000 kilos (Santorini 2001, 481). By 1921-1923 - and up to 1943, 830 stremmas were actively used for the cultivation of fava, yielding 100,000 kilos (Santorini 2001, 481). Fava was another export crop, but of much less importance tomatoes due to the lack of processing, and the low yields.

Agriculture up to the earthquake had become much more diversified, relying on three export goods all rather unique to Santorini’s ecology and climate. Even wine underwent a period of modernization through the opening of a number of wine distilleries set up in the 1930s (Santorini Society and Shelter 50). The importance of agriculture up to 1956 is embodied in the sheer amount of land used for cultivation. The total cultivation of agriculture on the island up to the earthquake amounted to 55,000 stremmas (Santo Wine Cooperative 2004). This was a substantial amount, considering that the entire island is made up of 75,000 stremmas, and only 22,000 are cultivated today (Santo Wine Cooperative 2004).

Yet agriculture was not the only sector of the economy: manufacturing and quarries were also of great importance starting in the 1880’s up to the earthquake.

As aforementioned, many manufacturing opportunities presented themselves through the processing and export of agricultural goods. Other manufacturing industries included a knitting factory that was set up in Messaria in 1889 (Santorini Society and Shelter, 50). Also, a stocking manufacturing industry was opened in 1929 ( Santorini Society and Shelter, 50). Factories were established in Santorini, due to the cheap source of reliable labor Santorini provided. Because of the decline in wine based agriculture, many women were left in Santorini alone, as their husbands left to find work in Athens. These impoverished women left behind to form the nucleus of the workforce for the knitting and stocking factories (The Santorini of Santorini 1995, 68). Furthermore, the garment factories used a local product that has already gone extinct due to the upheaval of traditional ways of life; perennial cotton unique to Santorini. This special form of cotton that existed on the island for hundreds of years was used extensively in the island’s turn of the century weaving and stocking garment industry. However, after the ravages of WWII and the earthquake, most of the industries relocated to Attica and Athens (Santorini Society and Shelter 50).

The quarries were another major sector of the economy in the late 19^th to early 20^th century. Quarries were set up for the extraction of Tufa or Possuolana, which has special insulatory properties. In 1890 a Greek and a German founded the Hephaistos Company that concentrated on the extraction of Possoulana (Santorini 2001, 474). The Possoulana was widely exported and was used in the construction of the Suez Canal. In the 1920’s a large plant was built for drying, pulverizing and packaging Possoulana into sacks for export (Santorini 2001, 474). Other companies soon entered the fold, including the Lavas quarry, and the Heracles Cement Company (Santorini 2001, 474). However, when tourism developed in importance after the 1956 earthquake, all but the Heracles Cement quarry closed down in the 1970’s (Santorini 2001, 474).

One of the developments of the economy before the 1956 earthquake was the emergence of tourism as an economic activity. Tourism was almost non-existent on the island until the earthquake. But in 1935, the first and only form of tourism on the island was an annual cruise of Santorini by a German luxury liner of German aristocrats (Damigos 2004). Then, after the Second World War, from 1950-1956, cruise ships arrived at Santorini once a month, and the passengers from the cruise ships were provided with donkeys for transportation to a few local tavernas (Damigos 2004). Thus, before the earthquake, tourism was nothing more than a side industry for locals. A few locals could make money once a month or week, off of cruisers by serving food or providing transportation up the caldera via donkey. No other tourist infrastructure existed - no hotels or rooms to rent, and just a handful of tavernas that primarily served the local population.

The Santorini economy of the late 19^th century to 1956 was not tied to just one product as it is today. The Santorini economy that was once so reliant on wine, redefined itself. The economy was defiant and diverse: it produced a variety of culturally significant agricultural goods, it processed agricultural goods, it had a vibrant manufacturing sector, as well as important quarries. Tourism was little more than an infrequent side industry that didn’t even begin until 1935. Thus, the present day Santorini economy, and its total dependence on Tourism, is a trend contrary to the island’s diverse economic past.

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