Mechanising the Greek Tobacco Industry: Worker Knowledge, Protest, and Territorial Expansion, 1890–1925

The first concerted efforts to mechanise the Greek cigarette industry date back to 1910, several decades after the invention of the early cigarette machines that were revolutionising the tobacco world, and marked the start of a drawn-out process in Greece that lasted over a decade more. The early cigarette machines, notably the Bonsack machine that was developed in the early 1880s in the US and became one of the best known globally, had their limitations in terms of engineering knowledge; and in Greece, as in other parts of the world, their introduction was contentious, not least as they threatened the craft of hand rolling. The historical context for Greek mechanisation, moreover, was one of war, in the throes of which Greece doubled in size by annexing territories of the former Ottoman Empire. These included major tobacco-processing centres that were home to a multinational force of craft workers. Their knowledge and moral codes transcended linguistic divisions and served them well when it came to controlling the work process. This chapter thus details how what unfolded was a process fraught with both technological drawbacks and spirited opposition on the part of artisans whose very existence as such was under threat.