We find information on the first Greek merchants that settled in the Netherlands for the short period of the 16th century in the archives of Anvers when the city of Anvers was incorporated into the Netherlands. Furthermore, we know of a person in the 17th century named Nik. Lysios from Cyprus who petitioned to the government of Amsterdam for the organization of monopolistic trade between Cyprus and the Netherlands; an attempt that did not succeed. The systematic settlement of the Greek orthodox pedlars began in the mid-18th century. The Greek mercantile colony was formed in the 1750's.

One of the first concerns of the Greek settlers was to found and orthodox church which was indispensable for social rallying and communication in the foreign environment. The Greeks first turned to Russia, which had considerable commercial relations with the Netherlands, believing in the assistance of the fellow orthodox Russian Empire. They took the necessary steps repeatedly in order to obtain financial support for the construction of an orthodox church and for a priest. Their efforts failed. Thanks to the chronicle of the Greek colony that Ioannis Prigos, a merchant of Amsterdam of no particular education, we have information on the whole procedure the Greek migrants followed in order to achieve their goal. The rejection of the two letters by the Russian Synod - the first in 1752 and the second in 1755 - discouraged the Greeks and made them turn to the Russian nobles in hope of a more favourable reply. Initially, they turned to the prince Galitzin, the general Betzkof and the baron Stroganof, to which they had offered hospitality in Amsterdam. They had promised the Greeks immediate and considerable assistance. The Greeks sent beseeching letters to courtier ladies, to the Estrana Collegia (the foreigners' service), the baron Hlebof, the Russian noble K. Sepinin and to other persons, courtiers or members of the Russian authorities but their efforts did not meet with success.

The financial support for the erection of an orthodox church came unexpectedly. A merchant from Philipoupolis, D. Papathanasis, entrusted his possessions to the Dutch governor of Patavia, an island of the Dutch Indies, to take to Amsterdam after his death in Patavia. The representatives of the family that came to take his possessions left the Greek settlers 5000 guldens as an exchange for the considerable services the Greeks offered when they confronted bureaucratic difficulties. As a result, in November 1763, after a few months of search, the Greeks bought a small house in a quite neighbourhood. The orthodox church opened in July 22nd in 1764 after the needed works and the provision of the church with books, icons and church equipment.

Until then the Greek settlers of Amsterdam, which never confronted any particular problem with the Dutch authorities as far as the free practice of their religious duties is concerned, attended the liturgy in private places or in small rooms of public buildings they rented (e.g. in the Walker Strat, Kones Strat, etc.) The church equipment they used were bought with money they had raised or donations of Russian nobles. They had even constituted a small ecclesiastic committee that attended to different church matters. The permanent concern of the committee was the payment of the priest which seems to have been very low since many vicars often resigned (e.g. Amvrosios Partzikalas in 1761 and Nektarios in 1763). The payment of the priest was one of the most significant problems of many Greek colonies abroad as well.

There is no detailed demographic evidence on the Greek colony of Amsterdam. However, we know that its members were very few. Not all migrants brought their families with them and this is the reason for which there was no need for the foundation of a school or the payment of a teacher. Apart from the merchants which were the principle members of the colony, there were also some owners of small stores, the unknown number of assistants the merchants brought with them and a whole movable population (seamen that travelled to Amsterdam, clergymen that visited the Netherlands for zitia, Greek students of the Dutch universities as well as scholars that came to the country of press freedom to print their books).

The Greek colony of Amsterdam operated basically as a retail centre within the economic system imposed by the developed countries of northwestern Europe in the Balkan and Mediterranean region. Already from the 17th and mainly the 18th century, English, French and Dutch merchants had made trade monopolistic in the region of the Ottoman Empire. But gradually the Greek merchants that had learnt from them adopted their model and mainly profited from the competition between them, became their competitors and in many cases took their place. The Greek colony of Amsterdam, as most of those composed in the 18th century, expressed a more advanced phase of this competition. As the Greek merchants proved capable of supplanting the western merchants in the markets of the Ottoman Empire, they felt strong enough to promote their commercial activities in the countries of their competitors. Besides, the Netherlands, "the store of the world", was a country of free trading activities, there were no restrictions imposed on foreign merchants. In addition, it was easy to settle in the territory of the Netherlands and to obtain the Dutch citizenship.

The places of origin of the Greek merchants represented the regions in which they replaced their Dutch competitors. The great majority came from Smyrna and Chios while there were also merchants from Thessaloniki and Zagora. Some of the well-known merchants were A. Tzigrilaros, M. Augerinos, A. Zapheiris, D. Kourmoulis, I. Prigos, A. Korais, and others.

The Greek merchants preferred to transport their merchandise on sea routes because it was less expensive. Land routes were rarely used for transporting small, light and precious articles. The basic means of transportation were the Dutch ships that travelled from the port of Smyrna to Amsterdam; their main stop was Livorno. The merchandise transferred were those of the dependent network of commercial transactions that dominated in the Turkish ruled East: raw materials from the Ottoman Empire to Amsterdam (cotton, fibres, wool), and manufactured products and colonial products to the Ottoman Empire (felt, textiles, velvet, medicine, spices and fabrics from India).

The most common way of organization of the Greek businesses was that of the "Companies". The companies were commercial companies that were involved in long distance trade. They were seated in a large centre of the Turkish ruled East and the partners which composed the Company directed their businesses in the various commercial centres of the Ottoman Empire and Europe. A company of this type the one of I. Augerinos which was composed of seven partners from Chios which had settled in Smyrna, Constantinople, Venice, Amsterdam (D. Kourmoulis) and in other commercial centres.

The "trokos", a method which was used in older times, that is delivering European products to the Ottoman native merchants on trust or in exchange of eastern products proved many times to be damaging. This method was gradually abandoned from 1770 onward since it was not profitable for the retailer which rarely found willing European buyers. Thenceforth all payments were done via bills of exchange.

We also know that the Greek merchants of Amsterdam were occupied with insurance activities (the first official Greek insurance companies were composed at the end of the 18th century). They were also present in the Stock Exchange, speculating on the international Stock Exchange. Already from the 1760's they were quite familiar with the "secrets of the game".

Many members of the Greek colony go bankrupt since 1774 and later because of the severe banking crisis in Amsterdam. In the same period, the Greek merchants also felt the effects of the lack of money in the Ottoman Empire. This generated the raise in the rate of interest of loans that they were forced to demand, because of the lack of initial capital, from wealthy Turks and Greek native merchants or in many cases from members of the money-changers' corporations.

Apart from the financial activities of the Greek merchants it is also interesting to study the change in mentality under the influence of the environment in the capital of the Netherlands. It is true that many members of the Greek mercantile colonies of abroad avoided - at least in the beginning - to mix with the native population. They carried and produced the structures of social organization they learnt in their country. The place where people believed in a different religion and spoke a different language frightened them. Their costume distinguished them from the natives. The corporation spirit was very strong and they feared steps toward the capitalistic environment.

A typical representative of this traditional and conservative mentality was Stamatis Petrou, apprentice of Adamantine Korais, who described the great changes he observed in the behaviour of "sire Diamante" with fear in a series of letters to his employer in Smyrna. Suspicious of whatever was out of the normal and repeated rhythm of a traditional society he condemned without second thought the gradual liberation of Korais from the way of life imposed by the church, the participation in the social life of Amsterdam, the convivial evenings and nights of entertainment, the mistresses and certainly his occupation with "devilish French books" that "turned him into a prodigal son".

It is true that the leader of the movement of the new Greek enlightenment was changed out of recognition in Amsterdam. The enlightened Europe charmed and seduced the very conservative merchant from Smyrna. His tutor, A. Buurt, taught him Geometry and Logic while he also brought him into contact with the scientific cycles of Amsterdam (B. Keun, P. Burmennus, Caroline von Leyden, etc.) in a city that enjoyed freedom of speech, press and religion. His thirst for learning and his curiosity, his great powers of conception and his creative contact with the new world that opened before him formed the personality that A. Korais maintained until his old years. Korais was the liberal bourgeois revolutionary of the early 19th century, full of self-confidence, pride and aggressiveness. He and other revolutionaries composed a social group that came into conflict with the traditional structures of the Greek society and sought new forms of social life.

We should also note a few information about I. Prigos, a Greek merchant of Amsterdam of no particular education who realized the importance of education for the future of his copatriots and did not fail to gather books (when he had the possibility) and send them to his place of origin, Zagora, exhorting mainly the children to read them carefully.

As for the attitude of the Greek merchants of Amsterdam toward the War of Greek Independence of 1821 we do not have much information. However, we do know that during that period, the Greek colony had loosened its resistance against the foreign environment. Many Greeks had married Dutch women, they had obtained the Dutch citizenship and, in general, adapted more easily to the Dutch society. There is evidence concerning two Greek merchants, Tamasakis from Chios and S. Palaiologos from Patmos who became members of the philhellenic Committee of Amsterdam and financed the shipping of arms to Greece in 1822.