[Bilimsel Haber] CfP: "History of tobacco industry, " 5-7 July 2013, Kavala

[Gonul Pultar]

From: Maria Rentetzi <mrentetz at vt.edu>



Call for Papers- Deadline Extended

Tobacco Roads:
Technology Transfer in Tobacco Industry during the Early Twentieth Century

5-7 July 2013
Kavala, Greece

The workshop marks the centenary anniversary of Kavala’s accession to 
the Greek state in July 1913. It is supported by the National Technical 
University of Athens, the Municipality of Kavala, ADVANTAGE AUSTRIA, 
Athens, and the Austrian Embassy in Athens.

Organizer: Maria Rentetzi, Associate Professor, National Technical 
University of Athens, Greece

Location: The venue of the conference is a wonderful tobacco warehouse 
renovated to host the tobacco museum of the city of Kavala in northern 
Greece.


The conference invites historians and scholars from the history of 
technology, technology studies, the humanities, architecture, museum and 
cultural studies and other related disciplines to an interdisciplinary 
discussion of the history of tobacco technologies. It aims to reassess 
the role of technology transfer in the social construction of whole 
cities and urban infrastructures and retell their history through a 
multidisciplinary approach. By focusing on major dimensions of 
technological change in the area of tobacco production and processing, 
the workshop aims to answer how and why tobacco technologies were 
crucial in shaping whole cities.  The conference is especially focused 
on the tobacco industry in Kavala, a town by the sea in northern Greece, 
and its interrelation to the Austro-Hungarian tobacco monopolies. We 
encourage, however, contributions that deal with the seminal issue of 
technology transfer in the tobacco industry in general during the early 
twentieth century, given that the transfer of technology affects the 
practices of both the new locality and the point of origin.


During the early 20th century the economies of a number of Greek cities 
relied almost exclusively on the cultivation, processing, and sale of 
tobacco leaves. Especially in coastal cities such as Kavala, everyday 
life mirrored the incessant tobacco production cycle—picking, drying, 
processing and baling tobacco. This was then transported to the port, 
loaded onto barges lined up at the quays in front of the city’s enormous 
tobacco warehouses and ferried out to foreign company steamers anchored 
out to sea. Since the 1840s, Lloyd, the major Austrian steamship 
company, had established a fortnightly service between Trieste and 
Kavala. Tobacco exports were directed mainly at the Hapsburg Empire, but 
also Russia, England, Egypt, France, and even the United States. The 
city attracted both the Greek bourgeoisie—retailers who traded tobacco 
as independent exporters in mainly the Balkans, Russia, Egypt, and 
Turkey—and European corporations. These were powerful investors who 
built their own tobacco warehouses and often had the double role of 
foreign consul in the city and tobacco merchant. It is indicative that 
by 1880 all the major European countries had established consulates in 
the city of Kavala. By the end of the nineteenth century, around 4,000 
tons of tobacco were being sent abroad annually from the city’s port 
mostly by the Austro-Hungarian Herzog et Cie. By 1913 there were 61 
tobacco trading houses in the city.

In this context of economic growth, powerful tobacco dealers mainly from 
the Austro-Hungarian empire, introduced innovative processing and 
packaging machinery in order to maintain a firm grip over tobacco 
production. Indeed, the tobacco industry stood at the cutting edge of 
business practice. The history of tobacco in Greece has been told as 
part of the country’s political, economic, and labor history; 
fortunately it has also evoked interest in gender and women’s history. 
Yet, historians, sociologists, and anthropologists have paid less 
attention to the ways that the transfer of tobacco technologies, mostly 
from the Hapsburg Empire, shaped local societies, were transformed by 
them and also greatly influenced the national economy after the city’s 
accession to the Greek state.

Transferring artifacts and methods for tobacco production and processing 
is but one form of technology transfer. The history of Greek cities such 
as Kavala has witnessed many other forms of technology transfer that 
touch on the technological know-how, the actors, the practices, and the 
industrial buildings. The story of the Greek city of Kavala and its 
tobacco trade relations with Vienna is an example of technology transfer 
and a starting point for a wider discussion on the use of technology in 
tobacco production, processing, and distribution.

Thus, we invite contributions on, but not limited to, the major actors 
in the tobacco trade in Kavala, such as the Austro-Hungarian Jewish 
industrialist Pierre Herzog who monopolized trade of Balkan and Turkish 
tobacco in Central Europe by the end of the nineteenth century and his 
company’s representative in the city, Adolf Wix von Zsolnay; the tobacco 
trade and economic relations and technology transfer between Kavala and 
Vienna; the traditional tobacco processing methods and their 
mechanization; the work culture and the political upheavals that were 
resulted from the introduction of new technologies in tobacco 
warehouses; the transfer of architectural styles and forms from Austria 
to the wider area of Kavala and neighboring cities. Also references to 
other parts of the world and tobacco centers are welcome.

Submission guidelines:
A 250-words abstract along with a short one page cv as a word or pdf 
attachment are requested by March 10, 2013. Please send these to Maria 
Rentetzi mrentetz at vt.edu<mailto:mrentetz at vt.edu> Proposals will be 
reviewed and notification of the outcome will be made on March 30, 2013.

Conference registration fee: 50 euros

--
Maria Rentetzi
Associate Professor
National Technical University of Athens
Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and Law
School of Applied Mathematics and Physical Sciences
Zografou Campus, Zografou 15780
Athens, Greece

tel. +30 210 6106537 , fax +30 210 7721618
Email: mrentetz at vt.edu<mailto:mrentetz at vt.edu>