Hellenic shipowners move in droves. When one does something that works, others follow.
As early as 1869, budding steamship owner Stefanos Xenos complained how hard it was to keep Greek rivals in London from mimicking profitable trades or investment decisions.
“Greeks unfortunately follow each other in a transaction,” the flamboyant businessman, author and politician wrote in a book on his shipowning days, which is still a treat to read.
The speed with which Greek players spot and adopt fresh ways of doing business has been key to their success.
Greeks did not invent steamships but were among the first to embrace technical innovations, allowing them to leapfrog from sail ships to screw-propelled steamships.
Greeks are admired for their asset play skills. Yet it was 19th-century British owners such as Burrell & Son that first treated vessels as objects of speculation in big deals, buying and selling entire fleets.
Norwegians were first to make large-scale commercial use of tankers. But it was Greeks who made the most of these ships in the decades of rampant economic growth after World War II.
Many have wondered what it is about the Greeks that enables them to get things right at the optimal timing.
Culture is a key factor. If the mantra is true that the only certainty in shipping is uncertainty, then Greeks have a built-in advantage — their entire history has been a lesson in dealing with the unexpected.
Tales of the unexpected
Living for centuries as second-class subjects in empires dominated by foreigners has taught them to take nothing for granted, and always be on their toes, relying on hard work, thrift and guile to prosper.
Life in independent Greece has not been easy either. In the past two centuries, the Hellenic state has gone through seven foreign wars, four civil wars and seven bankruptcies.
Compared with such turmoil, dealing with the vagaries of shipping markets can seem easy.
However, just as important as culture has been the way in which their businesses are structured.
Greeks were not the first to build their shipping companies along family lines, but theirs have proved particularly dynamic.
That is largely because the country’s shipping aristocracy has never been a closed club. It exists in state of flux, open to ambitious outsiders, mostly from the thousands of upstart captains and officers eager to become shipowners in their own right.
In addition, Greek shipowners have never consolidated as a rigid social group. They are a flexible amalgam of family networks that are always exchanging information — at work, church, feasts and football stadiums, and from a young age.
If Greeks imitate each other, it is not because they lack imagination. It is because that is the way they exchange market signals, try new ideas, adopt them if they work and reject them if they fail — often before foreign competitors have even heard about them.
It is why they win.
This article is part of a series of stories looking back at the history of Greek shipping, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the country's independence
