Tobacco in Kavala

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From the 19th century to the 1950s, Kavala was the largest place for processing and exporting tobacco in the region. Due to its geographical location, during the Ottoman Empire, a large number of tobacco companies and warehouses were concentrated in this place, hence it is known as the tobacco Mecca. However, this commercial activity went into decline with the economic crisis of 1929.
The first warehouses of Kavala were built on the beaches about the year 1860, were two stories, rectangular, and built of stone and wood. Some trading owners were: Vardas, Grigoriadis Tzimourta, Fessas, Foscoli Nalbandis, N. Tzimourtas, K. Emfietzoglou.


Working in a tobacco warehouse involved activities in the secondary sector related to the industrial treatment of the product, with the curing of the tobacco leaves during the fermentation period of its components, after February, when the temperature became warmer. After the initial processing (agricultural), the bale was transformed into the bale of tobacco of classic elaboration, which soon was destined to the tertiary sector: the sale to the market. It is speculated that, the mechanism of creating a relative overpopulation in agricultural areas and strengthen the workforce in the cities, did not work among the farmers of the tobacco-producing regions. The solution was to combine agricultural and labor activities.




During the period of Ottoman rule, the majority of tobacco workers were in the area of Macedonia and Thrace. In 1910, there were 16,000 tobacco workers in Kavala, 6,000 in Xanthi (2,500 of who were Muslims, 2,000 Turks and 500 Pomaks), 5,000 in Drama, 2,500 in Serres, 4,000 in Thessaloniki. In the interwar period, the total number of Greek tobacco workers amounted to about 40,000, of who 35,000 lived in northern Greece (approximately 9,000 in Central Macedonia, 18,000 in East Macedonia, 1,000 in Western Macedonia and 7,000 in Thrace).

However, the manner in which this development occurred led to class struggles with multiple conflicts. In 1886, was the first strike of the tobacco workers and in 1906, the first Union of Tobacco Workers was created. This worker's movement demanded better working conditions, better wages and professional security. The tobacco workers were elements of a living cultural society and the means of disseminating new ideas, because in that moment Kavala were an important place of exchange of thoughts. Here the first unions and the first strikes were made, a word unknown at that time in a highly conservative and oppressive Ottoman administration. The "grafting" of tobacco workers from potential refugees in the 1920s was the starting point for new events and the "golden age" of the local union movement, where the tobacco workers' profession was particularly valued with financial rewards and social recognition.




In 1922 with the arrival of the Greeks from Asia Minor and Thrace, the number of tobacco workers reached 19.400. For the next few years their number also increased, and in 1925 there was a register of tobacco workers of 22.543 people.
Tobacco workers were the dominant labor force in Greek society during the interwar period. They were the most populated and organized of the workers sector, with a strong presence in the cities of Kavala, Thessaloniki and Volos. It was the subject of smoking one of the main in Greek society. Tobacco was the main export product of Macedonia and Thrace and gave relevance to the cities of Kavala and Thessaloniki. Especially after 1922 and it was the way out of unemployment for thousands of Greek refugees.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, foreign merchant exporters of tobacco employed thousands of Christian and Muslim workers. The high cost of tobacco treatment encouraged US companies to export raw tobacco from the port of Kavala. This was not possible because tobacco workers reacted and promoted strikes and conflicts.

Another way in which traders tried to reduce the cost of exported tobacco was the exemption of skilled workers and the hiring of women who were paid a very low salary. The result again causes violent clashes between companies and workers. In 1913 the first conference of tobacco workers took place in Thessaloniki and it was decided to establish a central action committee in Kavala.
Another strike in March 1914 was decisive for the fate of tobacco workers in Macedonia. The Socialist Federation had tobacco workers in its ranks. The government has to face its first major crisis in the new territories.

After twenty days of a strike, tobacco worker's claims were accepted by the tobacco trade. After the arrival of the refugees and the financial crisis of 1929, the issue of smoking was of particular tension and social conflicts, where the tobacco merchants seemed determined not only to reduce the cost of processing, but also to impose new relationships of work. The power of the State was clearly on the side of the tobacco merchants. Tobacco exports brought foreign benefits, while government "support" to powerful tobacco traders reduces the "resistance" of the workers. In 1930 the Kapnergatiki Federation numbered 25 associations and more than 22,000 members. Between 1927 and 1928 there were the biggest strikes, where the tobacco merchants closed the factories and the repressive forces of the state responded harshly, leaving as a result dead and wounded.

Tobacco workers were classified as a "dangerous" class. The profession was regularized with the creation of the RAT of the Tobacco Workers Insurance Fund. That would require the use of a professional brochure from 1926 and abolished free access to the profession. Unemployment began to appear after 1929 and even grew thereafter.

From the 1930s to the 1960s there was a change in the processing of tobacco, which was forced by foreigners to reduce costs and change labor relations. This resulted in the disappearance of the tobacco´s workers profession and the deterioration of the city. The course of tobacco is inextricably linked to the development of the city. For this reason The Tobacco Museum was founded in 2003 to pay homage to all these people who, through hard work, endless will and inventiveness, have created a social wealth. The tobacco museum of Kavala is a thematic museum, which includes objects and archival material for the cultivation and production of tobacco, its commercial and agricultural processing, its industrial tobacco products and exhibition samples. It does not only include and exhibits the commercial processing of the Eastern Tobacco but it also showcases the social history of Kavala and the rest of the Eastern Macedonia and Thrace. 

 

Its collection is extremely rich. It includes objects used in the cultivation of tobacco, machinery, photographs, and documents. The visitor can also find books on tobacco, publications of the Greek Organization of Tobacco, archives of the Commercial Tobacco Association, private documents, tobacco maps and drawings, furniture etc.
Tobacco producers distributed tobacco processors throughout the region, making it possible to see old tobacco rooms and warehouses in the cities of Kavala, Xanthi, Drama, Eleftheroupoli, Doxato, in places and warehouses. In relation to the city of Eleftheroupolis, among the families that had the tobacco business, was the Papachristidis family, who had it in the first third of the 20th century.

If you want to know more about cultivation and distribution of tobacco, then you should visit the Kavala tobacco museum. The tools, photographs and documents show a good overview of what used to be the region's main source of income. This museum is unique in that it shows the trade behind tobacco, and the social history of Kavala, Thrace and East Macedonia. It will not take you long, it is located in the center of the city (Street Konstantinou Paleologou nº4) and it is reasonably priced to enter. If you go by bus from any city around, the museum is a five minute walk away. 
Consult the information in the following link:
https://www.tobaccomuseum.gr/





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