Navigating the Hostile Maze: Americans and Greeks Exploring 19th Century Russian Market Opportunities

Academic literature has dealt with the problem of Russia’s economic backwardness and its implications for the development of national and foreign entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, the 19th c. was a period during which vast regions of the Russian Empire were linked with the world economy through state and private and in particular foreign entrepreneurial endeavors . In this talk I intend to present the first results of an ongoing comparative study between two family firms that attempted, through trade and shipping, to enhance and stabilize their transactions with the North and South of Russia and finally attained to settle in St. Petersburg and Taganrog (Azov Sea region). The first, Ropes and Co [Harvard, Baker Library’s Historical Collections], originated from Boston and was founded the Russian capital in the early 1830’s. The second, the Sifneo Frères [Institute for Neo-Hellenic Research- The National Hellenic Research Foundation], came from the Aegean Islands under Ottoman rule, and settled in the port of Taganrog, Azov Sea region, right before the Crimean War. Through a Business History view four topics will be tackled: the entrepreneurs’ sense of market opportunity in differing geographical areas, the prerequisites for such an endeavor, the business strategy and the implications of family input in the firms’ evolution.

Speaker: Evrydiki Sifnaiou, Visiting Fellow, Hellenic Studies at Princeton, and Institute for Neohellenic Research, National Hellenic Research Foundation