Sotirios Sotiropoulos (; 1831–1898) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

economist and politician who briefly served as

Prime Minister of Greece The prime minister of the Hellenic Republic (), usually referred to as the prime minister of Greece (), is the head of government of the Greece, Hellenic Republic and the leader of the Cabinet of Greece, Greek Cabinet. The officeholder's of ...

Biography

Sotiropoulos was born in

Nafplio Nafplio or Nauplio () is a coastal city located in the Peloponnese in Greece. It is the capital of the regional unit of Argolis and an important tourist destination. Founded in antiquity, the city became an important seaport in the Middle Ages du ...

in 1831. He went to

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

to study law at the

University of Athens The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA; , ''Ethnikó kai Kapodistriakó Panepistímio Athinón''), usually referred to simply as the University of Athens (UoA), is a public university in Athens, Greece, with various campuses alo ...

, but was forced to interrupt his studies due to illness. Instead he turned to his other passion, Economics. In 1853 he was accepted as a tax inspector in the Ministry of Finances, and served in this capacity in various provincial towns. His rise was quick: by 1856 he was department head and soon after general secretary of the Customs Department. From this position he reformed the Customs service and wrote a new set of regulations for it, and suggested other reforms such as the abolition of the

tithe A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Modern tithes are normally voluntary and paid in money, cash, cheques or v ...

. For his services, King Otto awarded him the Silver Cross of the

Order of the Redeemer The Order of the Redeemer (), also known as the Order of the Saviour, is an order of merit of Greece. The Order of the Redeemer is the oldest and highest decoration awarded by the modern Greek state. Establishment The establishment of the Orde ...

. Following the ousting of Otto in 1862, Sotiropoulos entered politics, and was elected as a representative for

Triphylia Triphylia (, ''Trifylia'', "the country of the three tribes") was an area of the ancient Peloponnese. Strabo and Pausanias both describe Triphylia as part of Elis, and it fell at times under the domination of the city of Elis, but Pausanias ...

in the II National Assembly of 1862–64. He served as Finance Minister in the 1864–65 Konstantinos Kanaris cabinet, and was then nominated for president of the

Court of Audit A Court of Audit or Court of Accounts is a supreme audit institution, i.e. a government institution performing financial and/or legal audit (i.e. statutory audit or external audit) on the executive branch of power. See also *Most of those ...

, but refused the post and instead focused on his parliamentary career: he was almost repeatedly re-elected from 1865 to 1895. A supporter of Alexandros Koumoundouros, after the latter's death in 1883, Sotiropoulos served as an independent, criticizing both Charilaos Trikoupis and

Theodoros Deligiannis Theodoros Diligiannis (also transliterated as Deligiannis;Konstantinos Apostolou Vakalopoulos, ''Modern History of Macedonia (1830-1912)'', Barbounakis, 1988, p. 95. ; 1826–1905) was a Greek politician, minister and member of the Greek Parlia ...

, the two dominant and rival figures of Greek politics after Koumoundouros' death. In the 1887 elections he even led his own group of nine MPs. During this time, he was elected twice Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament, in 1878–79 and 1879–80, and served as Finance Minister in virtually all of Koumoundouros' cabinets (1865, 1870–71, 1875–76, 1880–82) as well as Justice Minister in 1880. His tenure in the Finance Ministry was marked by his personal integrity, a fight against corruption and mismanagement, and an effort to reduce spending and increase revenue. In May 1893, after the resignation of Trikoupis due to the country's impending default, Sotiropoulos was tapped by King George I to form a government as Prime Minister in co-operation with Dimitrios Rallis. Sotiropoulos held the Finance Ministry as well in this cabinet, but it proved shot-lived as he was forced to resign a few months later. Sotiropoulos died in Athens in 1898.

Writings

In 1866, Sotiropoulos was kidnapped and held by brigands for 36 days before he was ransomed for 60,000

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s. He recounted his time with the brigands in his

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autob ...

''Τριάκοντα εξ ημερών αιχμαλωσία και διαβίωσις μετά των ληστών'' ("''Thirty-six days captivity and life with the brigands''"), translated into English as ''The Brigands of the Morea: A Narrative of the Captivity of Mr. S. Soteropoulos'' (Saunders, Otley, and Company, 1868).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sotiropoulos, Sotirios 1831 births 1898 deaths 19th-century prime ministers of Greece 19th-century Greek economists 19th-century Greek writers 19th-century memoirists Finance ministers of Greece Justice ministers of Greece People from Nafplion Speakers of the Hellenic Parliament Greek MPs 1862–1864 Greek MPs 1879–1881 National and Kapodistrian University of Athens alumni Kidnapped people