Trade played an important role in the economic life of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Greece. The very limited industrial development,

in combination with commercial plantations of southern Greece (such as the cultivation of raisins) but also the retail tradition of the Greeks since the period of the Ottoman conquest, meant that commercial transactions were a basic factor in economic development. At this point the role of Greeks in mercantile communities abroad (paroikies) must be pointed out. They were especially active in the sector of transit trade. From the late nineteenth century on but mostly after 1910 the Greeks of the diaspora returned to the capital, adding capital to economic development.

Despite the bankruptcy of 1893 and the International Financial Control Commission, the devaluation of the drachma in relation to other European currencies but also the recovery of the European economy after the major crisis of the late nineteenth century contributed to the recovery of Greek foreign trade. Exports increased, but still less than imports (resulting in a negative balance of trade). Tariffs already imposed in Trikoupis's period covered the loss of exchange from the excess of imports, while they were operating protectively in an attempt at bringing about productive internal development. This development was part of the economic recovery that in general lines characterizes the 1900s. Thus the economic preconditions for the politico-social reforms that began with the military coup of Goudi in 1909 were created; preconditions that led to the war of the 1910s.