Ralli Brothers

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The five Ralli brothers, Zannis a.k.a. John (1785–1859), Augustus (1792–1878), Pandia a.k.a. Zeus (1793–1865), Toumazis (1799–1858), and Eustratios (1800–84), founded Ralli Brothers, perhaps the most successful expatriate Greek merchant business of the Victorian era.

Born to a wealthy merchant family of

Napoleonic wars, and sent his eldest son, John, to London
to explore business opportunities.

Founding of the Ralli Brothers’ partnership

Harvester House, Peter Street, Manchester; warehouse, by Clegg & Knowles, c. 1868[1]

John started trading in oriental silk and Russian grain in exchange for

Odessa and Constantinople; Pandia financed it from the Baltic Exchange in London; and Augustus oversaw the Mediterranean operations from Marseille
.

Their move away from Greece was prescient. It preceded the turmoil that was about to befall the Ottoman Empire that resulted in the Chios massacre in 1822 and subsequent Greek diaspora, and saw their traditional home markets closed.

They were quick to seize new opportunities created by wars, political events, and the opening of new markets, such as corn, cotton, silk,

St Petersburg, Taganrog, Tabriz, Alexandria, Smyrna, and Syria
.

Although they employed more than 40,000 people at one time, control rested in the hands of the extended family. When Pandia married in 1831, it was to Marietta Scaramanga (1810–60), another merchant from Chios, whose family had significant trading operations in Russia.

From 1851 Ralli Brothers started operations in India with offices in Calcutta and Bombay The business specialised in jute, shellac, sesame, turmeric, ginger, rice, saltpetre, and borax,[2] and employed 4,000 clerks and 15,000 warehousemen and dockers.

Their American operations were run from New York City and New Orleans, in association with their cousin Alexander Vlasto. They accurately gauged the grain opportunities that arose from the Crimean War, and were early traders in grain futures.

Later generations, Ralli Brothers Ltd

The partnership was dissolved on the death of Pandias in 1865, but his nephew Stephen Augustus Ralli (1829–1902) passed the Russian business to the Scaramanga family, and re-constituted Ralli Brothers on the British, American and Indian operations. On his death it passed in turn to his nephew Sir Lucas Ralli Bt., (1846–1931), who continued the tradition of adroit investment.

They made fortunes by building on the Indian and American businesses, astutely shipping cotton and textiles after the

Pondicherry and Madras they dealt in 'Khandesh' groundnuts. When World War I started, Rallis held the exclusive contract with the British War Department for jute sandbags.[3] The Great Depression saw the company beset with cashflow problems. This forced the Indian operations to close, and another Greek trading family, Argenti, stepped in to act as their agents. 1854–1931, Rallis' sojourn in India was extremely successful until the great economic crash of 1929
led them to close down their Indian operations. 1948–1963, Rallis India was reborn in a partitioned and independent India. The Company diversified, and its fertilizer and pesticides businesses began to take shape. 1964–1978, the company passed through turbulent times, molting and evolving. 1981–2000, its future was now firmly enmeshed in the future of Indian agriculture. By the early 1990s, Rallis became the fourth largest seed company in India. Tata Chemicals' fertilizer plant, manufacturing urea, was set up. Having identified agri-business as its core strength, Rallis India Ltd divested its pharmaceutical business, and decided to consolidate its position in pesticides, fertilizers and seeds.

Meanwhile, Ralli Brothers continued, based in London. In late 1960,

nationalised by the Treasury of the Government of Israel. Recanati had retained ownership of the Swiss private bank of Ralli Brothers (Bankers) S.A. which he later sold to Security Pacific Bank of California, using the proceeds to found a number of public museums. These Ralli Museums are free, non-profit galleries, of contemporary Latin-American art.[4]

In 1962, Sir Godfrey Ralli and his brother, Major Lucas Ralli, who had both been on the Board of Ralli Brothers, set up a new venture called G & L Ralli Investment & Trustee Co. Ltd. The company was established in August 1962, and shortly afterwards registered as a Trust Corporation. (Source: Evening Standard, 26/9/62). The original capital of the company was £250,000, consisting of 250K shares of £1. G & L was primarily concerned with the management of trust funds, but soon branched out into general private client portfolio management. The Company later became a Licensed Dealer in Securities, and was registered as a member of FIMBRA. The mid-1970s saw Sir Godfrey taking early retirement to pursue country interests. Lucas, the younger brother, subsequently took over as Chairman of the Group, with Mike Kemp promoted to managing director, soon thereafter. In 1983, the Ralli Investment Company Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary, acquired a Deposit-Taking Licence from the Bank of England. John Ralli, son of Lucas, was a Director of G & L Ralli from 1986 to 1990. In 1997, G & L Ralli merged with Ely Fund Managers. Ely Fund Managers, the UK private banking business of the Franco-Belgium group, Dexia, in turn, were subsequently absorbed into Rathbones in 2006, for a price of £14.5m.

Cultural influence

The Rallis used their establishment in London and elsewhere to help the influx of Greek merchants that emigrated to set up in business and settle into their new countries. Although they maintained their Greek culture and religion, they mostly became assimilated and naturalised subjects in their adopted lands. Pandia had a reputation for fair dealing and avoided questionable deals and finances, and forced his standards on the other Greek émigrés with whom they did business, earning him the nickname of 'Zeus'.

Through their contacts, who included

The Great Exhibition
of 1851.

Legacy

Ralli Hall in Hove commemorates Stephen Augustus Ralli.

Perhaps influenced by their families' own experience, they and their descendants were frequent donors to medical charities operating in Eastern Europe and the Balkan wars. The family initiated the construction of

Greek Orthodox cemetery within West Norwood Cemetery in 1842. Antonius commissioned the Doric chapel to St Stephen there from John Oldrid Scott, now listed Grade II*. Some of the family also commissioned architects to create their own significant mausoleums
there, including:

stained-glass windows in the church in 1904. The hall was sold in 1975 to the Brighton and Hove Jewish Community, who use it for their own activities and make it available for hire to other groups. The Edwardian Baroque-style building was listed at Grade II in 1992.[5]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ A warehouse in the style of an Italian palazzo, it is in sandstone on a vermiculated plinth, with a rusticated ground floor and a cornice, rusticated quoins, a frieze, a modillioned cornice, and a balustraded parapet. The building has a square plan, five storeys and a basement, and fronts of eight bays. In the ground floor are a round-headed doorway, round-headed windows with stepped voussoirs, and an inserted garage door. The windows in the upper floors are sashes in moulded architraves, those in the first floor with segmental pediments on consoles, those in the second floor with alternate triangular and segmental pediments, and those in the top floors with cornices
  2. ^ Rallis India company website Archived 19 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ The Times, 4 September 1916
  4. ^ Harry Recanati
  5. ^ Middleton, Judy (2002). The Encyclopaedia of Hove & Portslade. Brighton: Brighton & Hove Libraries. Vol. 11, p.10.

References

External links

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