The steady increase of receipts since 1898 attests the growing prosperity of the country, but expenditure has been allowed to outstrip revenue, and, notwithstanding the official figures which represent a series of surpluses, the accumulated deficit in 1905 amounted to about 14,000,000, dr. in addition to treasury bonds for 8,000,000 dr. A remarkable feature has been the rapid fall in the exchange since 1903; the gold franc, which stood at 1.63 dr. in 1902, had fallen to 1.08 in October 1906. The decline, a favourable symptom if resulting from normal economic factors, is apparently due to a combination of exceptional circumstances, and consequently may not be maintained; it has imposed a considerable strain on the financial and commercial situation. The purchasing power of the drachma remains almost stationary and the price of imported commodities continues high; import dues, which since 1904 are payable in drachmae at the fixed rate of 1.45 to the franc, have been practically increased by more than 30%. In April 1900 a 4% loan of 43,750,000 francs for the completion of the railway from Peiraeus to the Turkish frontier, and another loan of 11,750,000 drachmae for the construction of a line from Pyrgos to Meligala, linking up the Morea railway system, were sanctioned by the Chamber; the first-named, the “Greek Railways Loan,” was taken up at 80 by the syndicate contracting for the works and was placed on the market in 1902. The service of both loans is provided by the International Commission from the surplus funds of the assigned revenues. On the 1st of January 1906 the external debt amounted to 725,939,500 francs and the internal (including the paper circulation) to 171,629,436 drachmae.
The budget estimates for 1906 were as follows: Civil list, 1,325,000 dr.; pensions, payment of deputies, &c., 7,706,676 dr.; public debt, 34,253,471 dr.; foreign affairs, 3,563,994 dr.; justice, 6,240,271 dr.; interior, 13,890,927 dr.; religion and education, 7,143,924 dr.; army, 20,618,563 dr.; navy, 7,583,369 dr.; finance, 2,362,143 dr.; collection of revenue, 10,650,487 dr.; various expenditure, 9,122,752 dr.; total, 124,461,577 dr.
The two privileged banks in Greece are the National Bank, founded in 1841; capital 20,000,000 drachmae in 20,000 shares of 1000 dr. each, fully paid up; reserve fund 13,500,000 dr.; notes in circulation (September 1906) 126,721,887 dr., of which 76,360,905 dr. on account of the government; and the Ionian Bank, incorporated in 1839; capital paid up £315,500 in 63,102 shares, of £5 each; notes in circulation, 10,200,000 drachmae, of which 3,500,000 (in fractional notes of 1 and 2 dr.) on account of the government. The notes issued by these two banks constitute the forced paper currency circulating throughout the kingdom. In the case of the Ionian Bank the privilege of issuing notes, originally limited to the Ionian Islands, will expire in 1920. The National Bank is a private institution under supervision of the government, which is represented by a royal commissioner on the board of administration; the central establishment is at Athens with forty-two branches throughout the country. The headquarters of the Ionian Bank, which is a British institution, are in London; the bank has a central office at Athens and five branches in Greece. The privileged Epiro-Thessalian Bank ceased to exist from the 4th of January 1900, when it was amalgamated with the National Bank. There are several other banking companies, as well as private banks, at Athens. The most important is the Bank of Athens (capital 40,000,000 dr.), founded in 1893; it possesses five branches in Greece and six abroad.
Greece entered the Latin Monetary Union in 1868. The monetary unit is the new drachma, equivalent to the franc, and divided into 100 lepta or centimes. There are nickel coins of 20, 10 and 5 lepta, copper coins of 10 and 5 lepta. Gold and silver coins were minted Currency, weights and measures. in Paris between 1868 and 1884, but have since practically disappeared from the country. The paper currency consists of notes for 1000 dr., 500 dr., 100 dr., 25 dr., 10 dr. and 5 dr., and of fractional notes for 2 dr. and 1 dr. The decimal system of weights and measures was adopted in 1876, but some of the old Turkish standards are still in general use. The dram = 1⁄10 oz. avoirdupois approximately; the oke = 400 drams or 2.8 ℔; the kilo = 22 okes or 0.114 of an imperial quarter; the cantar or quintal = 44 okes or 123.2 ℔. Liquids are measured by weight. The punta = 15⁄8 in.; the ruppa, 3½ in.; the pik, 26 in.; the stadion = 1 kilometre or 1093½ yds. The stremma (square measure) is nearly one-third of an acre.
Authorities.—W. Leake, Researches in Greece (1814), Travels in the Morea (3 vols., 1830), Travels in Northern Greece (4 vols., 1834), Peloponnesiaca (1846); Bursian, Geographie von Griechenland (2 vols., Leipzig, 1862-1873); Lolling, “Hellenische Landeskunde und Topographie” in Ivan Müller’s Handbuch der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft; C. Wordsworth, Greece; Pictorial, Descriptive and Historical (new ed., revised by H. F. Tozer, London, 1882); K. Stephanos, La Grèce (Paris, 1884); C. Neumann and J. Partsch, Physikalische Geographie von Griechenland (Breslau, 1885); K. Krumbacher, Griechische Reise (Berlin, 1886); J. P. Mahaffy, Rambles and Studies in Greece (London, 1887); R. A. H. Bickford-Smith, Greece under King George (London, 1893); Ch. Diehl, Excursions archéologiques en Grèce (Paris, 1893); Perrot and Chipiez, Histoire de l’art, tome vi., “La Grèce primitive” (Paris, 1894); tome vii., “La Grèce archaïque” (Paris, 1898); A. Philippson, Griechenland und seine Stellung im Orient (Leipzig, 1897); L. Sergeant, Greece in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1897); J. G. Frazer, Pausanias’s Description of Greece (6 vols., London, 1898); Pausanias and other Greek Sketches (London, 1900); Greco-Turkish War of 1897, from official sources, by a German staff officer (Eng. trans., London, 1898); J. A. Symonds, Studies, and Sketches in Italy and Greece (3 vols., 2nd ed., London, 1898); V. Bérard, La Turquie et l’hellénisme contemporaine (Paris, 1900).
For the climate: D. Aeginetes,Τὸ κλῖμα τῆς Ἑλλάδος (Athens, 1908).
For the fauna: Th. de Heldreich, La Fauna de la Grèce (Athens, 1878).
For special topography: A. Meliarakes, Κυκλαδικὰ ἤτοι γεωγραφία καί ἱστορία τῶν Κυκλαδικῶν νήσων (Athens, 1874); Ὑπομνήματα περιγραφικὰ τῶν Κυκλάδων νήσων Ἄνδρου καὶ Κέω (Athens, 1880); Γεωγραφία πολιτικὴ νέα καὶ ἀρχαία τοῦ νομοῦ Ἀργολίδος καὶ Κορινθίας (Athens, 1886); Γεωγραφία πολιτικὴ νέα καὶ ἀρχαία τοῦ νομοῦ Κεφαλληνίας. (Athens, 1890); Th. Bent, The Cyclades (London, 1885); A. Bötticher, Olympia (2nd ed., Berlin, 1886); J. Partsch, Die Insel Corfu: eine geographische Monographie (Gotha, 1887); Die Insel Leukas (Gotha, 1889); Kephallenia und Ithaka (Gotha, 1890); Die Insel Zante (Gotha, 1891); A. Philippson, Der Peloponnes. (Versuch einer Landeskunde auf geologischer Grundlage.) (Berlin, 1892); “Thessalien und Epirus” (Reisen und Forschungen im nördlichen Griechenland) (Berlin, 1897); Die griechischen Inseln des ägäischen Meeres (Berlin, 1897); W. J. Woodhouse, Aetolia (Oxford, 1897); Schultz and Barnsley, The Monastery of St Luke of Stiris (London, 1901); M. Lamprinides, Ἡ Ναυπλία (Athens, 1898); Monuments de l’art byzantin, publiés par le Ministère de l’Instruction, tome i.; G. Millet, “Le Monastère de Daphni” (Paris, 1900). For the life, customs and habits of the modern Greeks: C. Wachsmuth, Das alte Griechenland im neuen (Bonn, 1864); C. K. Tuckerman, The Greeks of to-day (London, 1873); B. Schmidt, Volksleben der Neugriechen und das hellenische Altertum (Leipzig, 1871); Estournelle de Constant, La Vie de province en Grèce (Paris, 1878); E. About, La Grèce contemporaine (Paris, 1855; 8th ed., 1883); J. T. Bent, Modern Life and Thought among the Greeks (London, 1891); J. Rennell Rodd, The Customs and Lore of Modern Greece (London, 1892). Guide-books, Baedeker’s Greece (3rd ed., Leipzig, 1905); Murray’s Handbook for Greece (7th ed., London, 1905); Macmillan’s Guide to the Eastern Mediterranean (London, 1901).
(J. D. B.)
2. History