In the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries agriculture continued to be the most important sector of economic activity in Greece.

The majority of the population lived in rural areas and was occupied in agricultural professions. Besides, the policy of the Greek state favoured small properties. The agricultural reforms of 1871, initiated by Alexandros Koumoundouros, reflect this. At this time the issue of national lands was resolved, an issue that had been pending since the time of the Greek struggle for independence. The promotion of small property resulted in the dissemination of commercial estates (raisins, olive oil) in southern Greece, especially in the northern and western Peloponnese. The rapid increase in raisin production, in combination with the state of world economy and a conjunction of circumstances, led to the outbreak of the raisin issue.

With the incorporation of Thessaly a considerable increase in the cultivation of arable lands came about, as was expected. Apart from this a quality change occurred in regard to agricultural land, due to the prevalence in these areas of large estates, the former Turkish chiftliks. The farmers of these estates, the sharecroppers, had no property right on the lands they cultivated, but nor did they have rights that could protect them, in contrast to their position in the Ottoman period. Thus resulted the Thessaly issue, in which the landless protested against the expropriations and distribution of the lands of chiftliks. After the Balkan Wars, the annexation of Macedonia and Thrace, where large estates prevailed, exacerbated the problem. Finally, the revolutionary government of Venizelos in 1917 went ahead with new agricultural reforms, which began to be implemented during the inter-war period.