Tobacco in the Business Enterprises of Christo and Evlogi Georgiev

Tobacco penetrated the territory of the Balkans at the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century, and over time it became the main livelihood for a considerable part of the population, as well as an important commercial product with a significant contribution to both, the tax system and the financial situation of those involved in its production and trade. The high increase in the use of tobacco products in the 19th century had commercial and cultural motives. As a result, tobacco production areas were expanding and the demand for tobacco on the domestic and export market was rising. From the second quarter, and especially from the middle of the 19th century on, more and more wealthy Bulgarians established a position in the tobacco sector through the production, trade or purchase of tax revenues. Part of this group, from the first half of the 1950s on, were Christo and Evlogi Georgiev. The purpose of the present study is to reveal for the first time the place of tobacco in the economic enterprises of the Georgiev brothers. It aims to outline the rationale behind their decision to venture in this economic sphere, as well as to trace the hurdles and dilemmas they faced. Correspondence from the 50s–60s of the 19th century between entrepreneurs and the two brothers reveals in detail various issues related to the trade or cultivation of tobacco. Tobacco was present for a much longer time in the Georgiev brothers’ commercial enterprises – from the first half of the 1950s to the period of war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire in 1877–1878. In addition, Christo and Evlogi Georgiev sought to increase the quantity of traded tobacco through attempts of own production on the territory of Wallachia, which was not characteristic of their economic profile until the mid-1960s and was a supplement to other large-scale productions. With their involvement in the production and trade of tobacco during the period from the beginning of the 50s till the end of the 70s of the 19th century, the Georgiev brothers became part of the generation that established positions in the tobacco sphere. Regardless of the difficulties and dilemmas they often faced, they provided the crucial solid historical basis needed for the establishment of tobacco as an essential element, both, in the economic mentality of the following generations and in the economic infrastructure of the Bulgarian state from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century.