The Other Side of the National Entrepreneur: Balkan Opium Traders at the End of the 19th and the Beginning of the 20th Centuries

It is a little-known fact that in the Interwar period between 40 and 80% of opium for the world markets was produced in the Balkans. Yugoslavia and Turkey were particularly active in this regard, but Bulgaria was also looking for its place under the sun. Since the end of the 19th century, Bulgarian governments had been trying to stimulate the cultivation of poppy, in order to produce opium. A number of enterprising traders and farmers were embarking on the crop in question and turning it into a lucrative business, maneuvering between changing international and domestic regulations. This paper tries to shed some light on the murky territory of opium entrepreneurship in the Balkans until the World War II, asking whether all successful entrepreneurial efforts are necessarily beneficial to society. Based on archival analysis our paper presents research that for the first time examines opium’s role in some of the nation-states that emerged from the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire – Bulgaria, Turkey and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. We examine the multiethnic trade network that supplied opium and its derivative drugs not only in the Balkans, but also around the world. By using the example of key drug lords like Elie Eliopoulos we try to show that gangsters often had the same virtues related to the revered national capitalist and entrepreneur: decisiveness, risk taking, innovative thinking, the ability to form international networks. In this regard we are asking whether all successful entrepreneurial efforts are necessarily beneficial to society. Our paper is also a reminder that most successful entrepreneurs in most cases used some form of government protection and incentives.