The mule drivers of Metsovo were one of the most significant professional transporters in the early modern
Greece. In the Greece and especially in the
Balkans, the transportation of goods was performed almost exclusively by mules. The range and method of operation of the mule owners made the profession of
mule driver one of the most important ones for all land commerce and taxation of the time. In 1707, written sources start mentioning them as already having a trade guild established which leads credence to the belief that they were occupied in the transportation of goods since even older times. Throughout the 18th and 19th century they form one of the most active groups in the goods transportation industry in the Balkans. Pouqueville says the
Vlach mule drivers are known with the name Metsovites, while he considers the people of
Metsovo and the people of
Zagori as the most active mule drivers in Balkan's European market. Bοué describes the keratzides of Metsovo as the most famous in all "Albania" and among the most renowned in the Balkans. According to Goudas, the transportation of goods from
Bucharest,
Constantinople (İstanbul),
Belgrade
Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
and
Adrianople
Edirne (, ), formerly known as Adrianople or Hadrianopolis (Greek: Άδριανούπολις), is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, ...
(Edirne) was performed almost exclusively by Metsovites mule drivers.
Sources
*F. Braudel, I Mesogeios kai o Mesogeiakos kosmos tin epochi tou Fillipou B’ tis Espanias, transl. K Mitsotaki
a Méditerranée et le Monde Méditerranéen à l'Epoque de Philippe II transl. K. Mitsotaki, publ. National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation, Vol. A’, publ. MIET, Athens 2 1993, pp. 349–356.
*F. C. H. LPouqueville, VoyagedelaGrèce, deuxièmeedition, tomesecond, Paris, 1826, pp. 22–23•
*F. C. H. LPouqueville, VoyagedanslaGrèce, tomepremier, ChapitreXII, Paris 1820, pp. 157.•
*A. Bοué, Die Εuropäische Türkei, Band II, Wien 1889, p. 479•
*A. Goudas, Vioi Paralliloi, ton epi tis anagenniseos tis Ellados diaprepsanton andron, Ploutos h’ Emporion,
arallel lives of the men who excelled during the Renaissance, Wealth and Commerce Vol. C’, printer's M. P. Peridou, Athens, 1870, p. 290.
*Archeio Ali Pasa, Syllogis I. Chotzi, Gennadeiou Vivliothikis tis Amerikanikis Scholis Athinon,
li Pasha Archives, I. Hotzis collection, Gennadius Library Ed. – Commentary- Index: V. Panagiotopoulos with the collaboration of D. Dimitropoulos, P. Michailari, Vol. B 2007, pp. 676–677.
*G.Papageorgiou, Oi Syntechnies sta Giannena kata ton 19o kai tis arches tou 20ou aiona,
rofessional guilds in Ioannina during the 19th and early 20th century doctoral dissertation, publ. IMIAX, Ioannina 1998, p. 52 (note 1).
Metsovo
Economy of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Greece
Transport in the Ottoman Empire