The ""O.[rganization] of Th.[essaloniki]" waged an incessant economic war -being one of their major concerns- against the Bulgarians.

We couldn't wage this war radically -we lacked the knowledge, the experience and the means. It was no easy task -the Greeks were neither the majority nor the financially stronger group in Thessaloniki. For this reason the "Organization of Thessaloniki" urging the Greeks abroad in the economic war against the Bulgarians was always acting with caution and flexibility.

The "Organization of Thessaloniki" did not prevent any merchants among our people to deal with Schismatics but only when the geral benefit from this ban required that one individual suffer damage. Thus general instructions were limited in that no Greek consumer buy from Schismatics or use Bulgarian professionals. In the parts of the city where the Greeks bought from schismatic shops, because there were no Greek shops of that kind, we saw to it that Greeks ones opened, we helped financially to this direction some of our people. We saw to it that more Greek builders came to Thessaloniki, apparently from Epirus, and we convinced them to not ask for wages higher than those asked by the Schismatics. (...)

Rarely have we been forced to use the executive body* to threaten someone who purchased from the Bulgarians or even to destroy his buys. Very soon this boycott against those favouring Bulgarians became a trend, to put it that way. Its outcome was of no small importance, because the Schismatics of Thessaloniki were mostly petty merchants and builders; the Jews besides woud not purchase from them, because they owned plenty of small shops of every kind. In the Greek-dominated quarters all the schismatic small shops closed down · and these were not few · -only in the quarter of Ayia Triada there were three haberdasheries.

Greek builders multiplied by five.

We were urging our people to buy plots of land and Bulgarian houses or houses located in Bulgarian quarters. We also gave financial help to some of them to buy a large plot in the most central part of the Bulgarian quarter "Transvaal".

The general instruction was that no-one should sell or rent houses to Schismatics. We passed it over when circumstances prevented one of our people to oust a Schismatic tenant. But the executive body punished those not complying out of indifference or ill will. Apparently they had killed in June 1907 the estate agent P., who despite all the advice given by his Greek acquaintances, he had made it his job to sell Greek plots of land and houses to Bulgarians. Most of our people however were willingly following the instructions of the "Organization of Thessaloniki". Especially after the punishment of P. they would not rent or buy estates not even to Russians. Few of them, who still had Schismatic tenants in their shops in Egnatia, had it published in the newspapers that they rent them from day so-and-so of month so-and-so, from the day that is that the contract of the Schismatic terminated."

From: Ath. Souliotis Nicolaidis, O Makedonikos Agon. I "Organosis Thessalonikis" 1906-1908. Apomnimonevmata, Thessaloniki, Institute for Balkan Studies, 1993 (3rd edition). pp. 47-48.

* Special group of the Organization of Thessaloniki. "(...)Its actions, threats, all kinds of physical assaults were directed against Bulgarians and pro-Romanians, but some times against our own people as well who insisted on behaving contrary to national interests(...)" ibid p.40