Between Informal Networks and Formal Contracts: International Investment in Greece during the 1920s

This article examines network arrangements in the cross-border transfer of capital into Greece, a heavy international borrower between 1879 and 1932. The central argument is that while in the nineteenth century informal collaborative arrangements, with the Greek Diaspora playing the cohesive role, were particularly obvious in the cross border transfer of capital into Greece, in the 1920s there was a shift from more or less informal 'partnerships' to formal contracts. An example of this attempt at formalisation was the setting up of four entities/firms whose main objective was to raise the capital for a specific investment in Greece. This article examines these four entities, all of which were established in London - Britain at the time being Greece's main creditor. It is shown that these Anglo-Hellenic entities had on the whole become shell companies by the mid-1930s - in large part because they depended on the 'presumption' that the old informal network arrangements would still function to mitigate post-contractual opportunism - which did not hold ex post.