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The five Ralli brothers, Zannis a.k.a. John (1785–1859), Augustus (1792–1878), Pandia a.k.a. Zeus (1793–1865), Toumazis (1799–1858), and Eustratios (1800–84) founded Ralli Brothers, perhaps the most successful expatriate Greek merchant business of the Victorian era. Born to a wealthy merchant family of Chios, their father Stephenos Ralli (1755–1827) had settled in Marseille, but recognised that the nexus of trading had changed in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars, and sent his eldest son John to London to explore business opportunities. ==Founding of the Ralli Brothers’ partnership== John started trading in oriental silk and Russian grain in exchange for British textiles, and fetched his brothers over to help, incorporating as ''Ralli Brothers'' in London. Brother Eustratios ran the textile export operations from Manchester, Toumazis sourced raw materials and grain from Odessa and Constantinople, Pandia financed it from the Baltic Exchange, and Augustus oversaw the Mediterranean operations from Marseille. Their move away from Greece was prescient as it preceded the turmoil that was about to befall the Ottoman Empire that resulted in the Chios massacre and subsequent Greek diaspora, and saw their traditional home markets closed. They were quick to seize new opportunities created by wars, political events, and the opening of new markets, such as corn, cotton, silk, opium and fruit, rapidly establishing major trading operations across the Mediterranean, Russia, reaching out as far as St Petersburg, Taganrog, Tabriz, Alexandria, Smyrna, and Syria. Although they employed more than 40,000 people at one time, control rested in the hands of the extended family. When Pandia married in 1831, it was to Marietta Scaramanga (1810–60), another merchant from Chios, whose family had significant trading operations in Russia. From 1851 Ralli Brothers started operations in India with offices in Calcutta and Bombay that specialised in jute, shellac, teelseed, turmeric, ginger, rice, saltpetre, and borax,〔(Rallis India company website )〕 with 4,000 clerks and 15,000 warehousemen and dockers. Their American operations ran from New York and New Orleans, in association with their cousin Alexander Vlasto. They accurately gauged the grain opportunities that arose from the Crimean War, and were early traders in grain futures. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ralli Brothers」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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