From the end of the 12th century until 1540 Transylvania was a Hungarian self-governed region of the Hungarian kingdom (the voivod was the leader of the kingdom, the one who possessed the supreme political, administrative, military and judicial authority and was dependant of the Hungarian king) while in 1540 it became an autonomous principality under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire. At the end of the 17th century, Transylvania was found in the middle of the confrontation between the Hapsburg and Ottoman Empires, to be eventually brought under the Hapsburg rule in 1699.

The strategic position of Transylvania, the middle of the trade routes from Constantinople and the southern Balkans to central Europe, attracted very early many merchants from the Ottoman Empire, mainly Greeks. Initially, these Greek merchants took up only part of the trading of the neighbouring Danubian principalities by importing "eastern" products. These products were imported in Transylvania also and distributed from there to the great markets of Hungary, Vienna, Venice, etc. The local authorities favoured and encouraged these commercial transactions of the orthodox Balkan merchants - in particular of the Greeks - by conceding privileges and proceeding in economic facilities.
Thus, Transylvania was the first region of central Europe where the earliest Greek communities were created dating back to the 17th century, in the cities Brasov (or Kronstadt) and Sibiu (or Hermannstadt), which were the most important commercial centres of the region and the ones that enjoyed special privileges and autonomies.

The communities (Companies)

Conferment of privileges to the Greek Companies of Transylvania (17th-18th centuries)

In 1636 the prince of Transylvania Gyorgy Rakoczi I conferred the general collective privilege to all the Greeks that traded in Transylvania, allowing them to associate with one another and form a Company. The Greek merchants of Sibiu formed a Company according to a more specific privilege, while the commercial company of Brasov was founded a little later in 1678.

The privilege of Rakoczi instituted an exceptional law for the Greek merchants of Transylvania and their associations. The exceptional law defined the mercantile activity, the self-administration and the judicial jurisdiction of their associations.
In 1701 the emperor of Austria Leopold I conferred a new privilege to the Greek merchants of Transylvania. This privilege ratified and expanded the previous since it brought the Greek merchants under the royal protection and provided for exemptions and facilities in their trading activities. At the same time the Greek merchants maintained the right of self-administration and election of one notable. As for the administration of justice the criterion of the Company was the first and last degree of jurisdiction while civil cases could be judged in second degree on appeal to the treasury of Transylvania.
The next privilege to the Greek merchants that were members of the Companies of Transylvania was conferred by the empress Maria Teresa in 1777. This privilege aggravated the position of the two Companies in relation to the previous privilege, particularly the administration and the judicial jurisdiction of both Companies. More specifically, it demanded from the members of the Companies of Sibiu and Brasov to bring their families from the Ottoman Empire to settle in Transylvania and to take vows of allegiance to the Hapsburg emperor.

Rights and obligations of the members of the Greek Company of Sibiu

The organization of the Companies is based on its members. To become a Company member one had to be a Greek merchant and carry out commercial transactions in Transylvania. In 1669 the Transylvanian Diet defined that the highest number of Company members could not exceed 60 merchants, that had to deposit 600 five-drachma coins for the annual contribution of Transylvania to the Ottoman Empire. The members were distinguished in regular (in the strict sense of the word) and irregular members (in its broad sense). Both categories comprised the Ottoman subjects that were involved in the import trade of Transylvania. The difference is that only those that had a permanent residence in Transylvania were considered as regular members while the merchants that lived in the Ottoman Empire and came to Transylvania to sell their merchandise in the trade fairs (the pedlars) were the irregular members.

The regular members had the right to elect and be elected in the different administrative bodies of the Company, to participate in the legislative function of the Company by proposing and voting different decrees and to take part in the judicial function. They also had the right to benefit from the various economic profit that resulted from the commercial activities of the Company (a right of the irregular members also). The obligations of the members was the deposit of the amount of money that corresponded to each member for the fulfillment of the financial obligations of the Company toward the country, the observation and application of the Company decrees and their subordination to the jurisdiction of the Company. At the same time the members ought to be faithful toward the prince of Transylvania, pay the legal tariffs to the customs of the country and not get involved in its internal affairs. The fulfilment of their obligations offered them the possibility to trade and to stay in Transylvania, initially out of the city Sibiu, in the suburbs of other cities or in small towns and villages, while from the mid-18th century they could also live in the city Sibiu.

Internal structure and hierarchy of the Greek Company of Sibiu

The administrative organs of the Company of Sibiu were distinguished in individual organs (the notable, the captain, the two charatzarides ,the notary and the churchwarden) and collective organs (the associate judges, the "esso synedrion", the "exotera ton pallikarion" and the criterion -tribunal- of the Company).
The highest office was that of the notable, who is also referred to in the sources as "archigetis" (leader), "kritis" judge, etc. The notable was elected by the members' assembly unanimously and his term was mainly two years with the possibility of being re-elected. On the expiration of his term of office the notable was obliged to give a report on his work ("logariasin"). His authorities were broad and covered the whole range of the administrative, judicial and legislative activity of the Company, while he was the only one liable on behalf of the Company to the Transylvanian authorities. After the notable, the other important administrative organ were the associate judges ("omosmenoi"), which were elected by the assembly of the members and exercised their duties collectively. Their authorities were administrative and mainly judicial as they constituted along with the notable the criterion (tribunal) of the Company which was composed in 1639 and judged commercial, civil, penal and disciplinary offences of Company members and foreign merchants of the Ottoman Empire that had commercial transactions with Transylvania. The notable and the associate judges constituted the administrative body of the Company in contradiction to the other bodies and members of the Company which composed the body of the governed.
Other officials in the duty of the Company were the charatzarides, responsible for the collection of the compulsory tax from each member, the notary, that is the secretary of the Company, the agent,, the hired representative of the Company in the court chancellery of Transylvania in Vienna and the trustee, that is the proxy representative and surrogate notable of other officials also. All officials of the Company were obliged to take an oath before the assembly which had elected them. This oath bound them to be faithful to the prince of Transylvania and to the Company and to exercise their duties properly.

The organization of the Greek Company of Brasov

The Company of Brasov was founded in 1678 on the conferment of the privilege by the Transylvanian Diet, signed by the prince Apafi, which ensured the right to independence, self-administration and administration of justice to its members.

The supreme administrative organ of the Company of Brasov was, as for the Company of Sibiu, the notable ("leader and governor of the Company") who was elected by the members' assembly; the person which took the most important decisions for the Company. His authorities were mainly administrative while he was also an arbitrator in cases of oppositions between the Company members and was liable to the Austrian authorities on behalf of the Company. At the end of his office he was accountable for his work. The notable was assisted by a six membered council (the equivalent of the associate judges of the Sibiu Company) which was elected by the general assembly of all the Company members. The authority of this body was first of all administrative but also judicial in cases of opposition between the members since the company had the right to administer justice by electing the judges and their assistants from the members. They judged commercial and civil cases. The office of the judge appears very important in the documents of the Company as the merchants Ottoman subjects that were not Company members also belonged to the tribunal of the Company. Finally, the office of the secretaries was also important since they handled correspondence, the registers and in general the archive of the Company.

The foundation and operation of the orthodox churches in Sibiu

After the composition of the Community, the foundation of an orthodox church in their places of settlement was the other concern of the Greeks. During the first years of their activity,managed the Greeks of the Company of Sibiu did not have their own church but attended the liturgy in other temples or hired residences of the region for this purpose. In 1690 the senate of Sibiu permitted the erection of an orthodox temple on decree. This temple had to be built outside the city, in the suburb of Bungard. In 1745/50 the members of the Company bought a piece of land in the city centre in order ot build a church, a school and homes for the teachers. The construction works of this temple which was consecrated to Saint Athanasios and to the Transfiguration, began in 1797 under the surveillance of distinguished members of the Company, Manikatis Saphranos and Hantzikonstantinos Pop. Finally, another temple must have been erected in the suburb Croapa of Sibiu by Hantzikonstantinos Pop but we do not have further information on it.

The matters related to the temple were assigned to the churchwarden, an office that was instituted by the Company in 1721 for the administration of the temple and the management of its receipts and assets. Money was raised by selling candles and mainly by donations of members of the Company for the temple. The receipts were handled by the churchwarden who was obliged to give a detailed account to the criterion of the Company each year. Finally, the function of the vicar was very important for the good operation of the temple and the maintenance of peace, order and good communication between the members. The vicar was elected by the assembly of the Company and his duties were exclusively religious while the majority of the priests came from the great monasteries of the Turkish ruled Greek region.

The disputes concerning attending liturgy in Brasov

The foundation of an orthodox church by the Company of Brasov came into conflict with the distinction between the Greek merchants that belonged to the Company and those that did not, to the demand of the Romanians that the orthodox liturgy be done in the Romanian language and that the priest be Romanian. It also opposed to the hostile attitude of the Austrian Catholic authorities of the region. These obstacles hindered the erection of an orthodox temple in Brasov which was to be consecrated to the Holy Trinity. Eventually, the erection of the orthodox church began in 1787. Until then the Greeks attended liturgy in the Romanian church of Saint Nikolaos. A new controversy broke out concerning whether this temple was destined for all the Greek merchants of the city or only the members of the Company since the persons that did not belong to the Company demanded the foundation of their own temple. It seems that this demand was never satisfied.

Geographic origin and demographic information on the Greek Companies of Transylvania

The members of the Companies of Sibiu and Brasov came mainly from the Turkish ruled Greek regions and in particular from today's northern Greece. Specifically, their places of origin were the following cites: Arvanitochori, Melenoiko, Ioannina, Kozani, Serres, Philipoupolis, Constantinople, Thessaloniki, Trebizond, Tirnovo, Sinope, Nikopolis, while the merchants of the Brasov Community came also from Chios and Crete. Many members were from cities of other Greek colonies (e.g. Semlin, Bucharest, etc.) and from the neighbouring regions of Moldavia and Walachia, while there were also many orthodox Bulgarian, Romanian, Serb as well as some Jew, Albanian and Armenian members in the two Companies.

It is difficult to determine the specific number of the members of the two Companies due to the fluctuations of each period. It appears that the merchants who were members of the Company of Sibiu were very few in comparison with those who did not belong to the Company. Thus, in the second half of the 17th century the Company numbered 60 members while there were at least 400 merchants in Transylvania. The number of the members of the Brasov Company was subject to great fluctuations while at the end of the 18th century it numbered 494 members. However, it seems that the Brasov Company was broader than the Company of Sibiu. It accepted merchants from different regions of the Ottoman Empire but also from Walachia and Transylvania.

The Greek school of Sibiu

The foundation of a school as well as the erection of a temple constituted the main concern of the members of the two Companies of Transylvania. From its foundation in 1636 until 1766 the Company of Sibiu did not have a school and the education was undertaken by the orthodox priests and monks that provided for the elementary education of the Greek boys of Sibiu. The Greek school of Sibiu first opened in 1766. It was under the surveillance of the two churchwardens that were elected by the Company and were responsible for hiring a teacher and for the administration of the financial affairs of the school. Initially the school was lodged in a residence of the city which was hired for this purpose while the Company built a new school in 1797 in the centre of the city. The school aimed at the preservation of the mother tongue and Greek orthodox conscience of its students, but also at their familiarization with the principles of commerce. Consequently, the subjects that were taught in school were: good morals, the Bible, various prayers, arithmetic and the German language. The Company offered a salary to the teachers and a room to stay.

The foundation and operation of the Greek school of Brasov

The foundation of the Greek school of the Brasov Company resulted from the initiative of only one person - member of the Company - Panagiotis Hantzinikos who bequeathed to the Company an amount of money for its erection. The school opened in 1796. Until that time, Greek monks and scholars offered private lessons in the so-called home-schools. The operation and administration of the school often constituted a reason for conflict between the Greeks that were members of the Company and those that were not. There were three courses of lessons - the first lesson was modern Greek, the second was ancient Greek and the third lesson was the German language - that aimed at the reinforcement of the Greek orthodox conscience of the students and at their introduction into the principles of commerce. The books that were used in the school of Brasov were school manuals printed in Brasov or somewhere else. Some of the teachers of the Greek school of Brasov were Athanasios Stagiritis (1806), Militiadis Agathonikos (1814) and others.

The Greek school in Brasov, as the ones in Sibiu, had a rudimentary library, which was enriched with Greek books of that period. In addition, many eminent members of the Companies left legacies to the schools.

The intellectual trend in the Greek Communities of Transylvania

The Hellenic Companies of Sibiu and Brasov did not become important intellectual centres, as other centres of the Greek diaspora (Vienna, Venice, etc.). These Companies did not have Greek printing houses for the printing of Greek books, but they financed and supported the publication of Greek books by the neighbouring printing houses of Vienna, Buda, Pest and the Danubian principalities. At the same time, many Greek scholars of that period that headed for the neighbouring regions of Moldavia and Walachia would pass from Transylvania and settle for a short or a long period in one of the two Greek colonies (e.g. Ieremias Kakavelas, Illarion Kigalas, Ioannis Adamis and others). Thus, the Greeks of the two Companies met the new ideological trends and observed the intellectual achievements of that time.

Charity

We do not have many information on the charitable activities of the members of the two Companies. It is likely that the Greeks had founded the hospital and other benevolent institutions whereas the orthodox church of each Company must have maintained charitable activities. However, our bibliography does not provide us with detailed information.

Economy

An outline of the commercial activities of the Greeks in Transylvania

The members of the Companies in Sibiu and Brasov were as a rule merchants since the two Companies were initially constituted as commercial Companies. The privileges conferred to the merchants who came from the Balkan peninsula and particularly from Greece by the Austrian leadership enabled them to exercise the import and export trade of Transylvania. In this way, they either imported to Transylvania various eastern products or transferred these products via Transylvania to the big trade markets of central Europe and the Danubian principalities. The Greek merchants exported from Transylvania to the East manufactured European industrial products. Initially, they were allowed to sell their products only in wholesale or during the trade fairs. However, the privileges they later obtained permitted them to trade also in retail in the cities and to open their own stores. But, it was forbidden to export gold, silver, mercury and nitre from the country.

Transylvania in the network of the trade routes

The main land route itineraries that the Balkan merchants followed starting from Thessaloniki and heading in the direction of Transylvania were three. The first one which was rarely followed passed through Bosnia, the second land route was Serres-Melenoiko-Sofia-Vidin-Orsova-Pest-Vienna and the third followed the Struma valley, passed the cities Sofia and Nis and ended in Belgrade.

The condition of these routes until the 19th century appears to be very bad, while the bad weather conditions made travelling on the routes impossible. That is why the merchants were on the road for months. normally, they would start their journey in May and return to their countries in the beginning of Autumn. They needed two months to reach Bucharest. The most usual way of travelling was in caravans. Many merchants would gather and travel in groups until they reached their destination. They used beasts of burden as a means of transportation. During this long journey they would occasionally stop at the various khans and caravansaries they found on the road or in the cities.

The Greek merchants of Transylvania

The majority of the merchants of the Sibiu and Brasov Companies came from Ioannina, Serres, Thessaloniki, Andrianoupolis, Kozani, etc. In the first years of the Companies' constitution the merchants came to Transylvania alone, without their families, while later, the privilege of 1777 obliged them to bring their families from the Ottoman Empire to settle in Transylvania. The merchants were classified in two groups. The first group gathered the merchants that lived permanently in Transylvania and carried out domestic trade in the country. The second group included the pedlars who came to sell their merchandise in the trade fairs and returned to their country, carrying out in this way the transit trade. Manikatis Saphranos and Hantzikonstantinos Pop were some of the well-known Greek merchants of Transylvania.

Merchandise

The main products that the Balkan merchants imported to Transylvania were textiles and clothes from Prusa, Carpets from Anatolia, cotton, silk, hides, rice, linen textiles, thick capes, spices, wine, cereals, wool, beeswax, honey, big animals, etc. The Greek merchants provided the Ottoman markets via Transylvania with European manufactured products, luxury products, clothes, shoes, metals and metal objects, arms, etc..

Commercial organization forms of the Greeks in Transylvania

Most Greek merchants of Transylvania did not trade on their own; they formed commercial companies, that is many merchants associated in order to confront the difficulties of trade all together and to share the profit that resulted from their commercial transactions. All members of these companies contributed with their own capital and usually half of them would undertake the buying and the other half of the company would see that the merchandise was sold. There was a larger number of such companies in Brasov than in Sibiu.

Another form of commercial organization were the so-called commercial houses, that is to say big families of merchants with branches not only in Brasov and Sibiu but also in other European cities of Greek colonies (Vienna, Trieste, Belgrade, etc.). Specifically, the Greek commercial houses of Brasov had developed extensive relations with Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest, Constantinople, Moldavia and Walachia and other cities while there were many commercial companies of Vienna with branches in Brasov.
The members of the Sibiu and Brasov Companies visited the big trade fairs of Thessaloniki, Ioannina, Andrianoupolis, Tirnovos, Larisa, Philipoupolis and other Greek and eastern cities where they traded their merchandise.

Assimilation and tradition in the everyday life of the Greeks in Transylvania

The Greeks of Transylvania tried by all means to safeguard their orthodox faith and Greek tradition despite the hostile attitude and the economic and religious competition of the native Saxons they often confronted in their everyday life. Thus, they used the Greek language in the official documents of the Companies and correspondence and insisted on the teaching of both the ancient and modern Greek language in the schools they had founded. Nevertheless, certain elements of the local Saxon dialect infiltrated the Greek language due to the association of the Greeks with the natives. At the same time, they provided for sending money to their country for the erection of schools and the support of churches and monasteries, mainly for those of the Ayion Oros from which the majority of the priests of the two Companies came from.

As most of the Greeks were merchants they adopted the bourgeois way of life and constituted the bourgeois class of the local society. Very often they adopted European customs and fashions. However, the coercion of these merchants by the authorities at the end of the 18th century to obtain the Austrian citizenship and to bring their families to Transylvania led to the increasing assimilation of the Greeks by the native population and to the gradual weakening of their Companies.

Political activity

The Greek migrants in the International condition (15th-19th centuries)

The members of the Greek colonies of Transylvania do not have any particular political activity to show as far as the antagonism between the great European powers is concerned. The Greeks first came to the Transylvanian territory around the 16th century as merchants and did not seem to take part in the various disputes between the Hapsburg Monarchy and the Ottoman Empire for the suzerainty in Transylvania. It is only after the signing of the treaties of Karlowitz and Passarowitz, the Orlov events and the Albanocracy in the Peloponnese, the treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji and the two destructions of Moschopolis, and after the formation of the Companies in Sibiu and Brasov that the Greeks feel the effects of the events in southeastern Europe as an increasing number of migrants from the Ottoman ruled regions raises the members of the Greek Companies in Transylvania.

The contribution of the Greek Companies of Transylvania in different ways in the War of Greek Independence is certainly not negligeable. The members of the two Companies were partisans of Rigas Pheraios - whose messages had reached Transylvania - while they were also initiated in the Philiki Etaireia. As a result, after the failure of the movement of Ypsilantis in the Danubian principalities (June 1821) the two Companies were the basic reception places of the Greek soldiers, scholars, merchants, students from the Academies of Iasi and Bucharest and also from other European universities that tried to escape from the reprisal of the Turks in Moldavia and Walachia. Sibiu and Brasov were for many Greeks the intermediate stop that allowed them to pass on to Europe to continue their struggle. In addition, the Philiki Etaireia and its members seemed to take extensive action in these cities. In general, the Greeks of Sibiu and Brasov offered refuge to the fighters of this struggle for independence, supporting in this way the revolutionary powers of the Hellenism of that period.