page_title: Ampelakia, Larissa
section_title: The creation of the cooperative
hierarchical_section_title: Ampelakia, Larissa / History / The creation of the cooperative
caption_attribution_description: Ελληνικά: Ναός Αγίου Αθανασίου, Αμπελάκια Λάρισας English: Church of St. Athanasius, Ampelakia, Greece Български: Църква, Aбелакиа, Гърция
context_page_description: Ampelakia is a former municipality in the Larissa regional unit, Thessaly, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Tempi, of which it is a municipal unit and a municipal community. Ampelakia is also regarded as the historical seat of the municipality.
context_section_description: Ampelakia, an originally poor village without any navigable rivers and trade routes, had no neighboring towns of industrial significance. Well, how did it manage to present such an important and wondrous achievement which, at the same time, is an epoch-making event. Of course, we mean the foundation, organization and function of the first cooperative in all the world. A cooperative, in which the interests of work wedded to the capital in a marvelous way. The cooperative spirit spread in Greece much earlier than in other European countries. It is a part of the national folk tradition, based on a deep humanitarian spirit and the fair contribution of profits between the people. The first forms of cooperative appear around the 18th century. The most important examples are those of Thrace, sponge-divers of Aegina, the Thessalian Companies of Ampelakia of Tyrnavos, Agia, Zagora, etc. as well as the maritime cooperatives of the islands of Hydra, Spetses, Psara, Symi, Santorini and the maritime towns of Mesembria, Galaxidi and Kranidi.
  But the most important cooperative organization in Greece is found in Ampelakia, Thessaly. The cooperative of merchants, craftsmen, farmers and laborers of production of the red yarns of Ampelakia flourished in the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century. It is the first and most complete cooperative organization which was formed in Turkish-dominated Greece and developed like that: During the times of Homer and in the existence of the picturesque valley of Tempe there was the capital of the county of Magnetes, Meliboea, which was famous for dyeing purple (purpura Meliboea), whereas Ampelakia was famous for dyeing with the famous plant, erythrodamon (rizari), class: DICOTYLEDONES, category: RUBIALES, family: RUBIACEAE, gender: RUBIA, whose roots gave that scarlet red color, which held the virtue of not fading because of the sun and time. So, following the example of their neighbors from Meliboea, the people of Ampelakia developed the art of dyeing and spinning in a great degree. They were provided the cotton they used mainly from the valley of Tempe where it was grown systematically in large quantities. When there was insufficiency and a lot of orders, they were provided from Macedonia, Thessaly, and Asia Minor. The people of Ampelakia spun the cotton in distaff, spindle and then they dyed it scarlet red by means of rizari.
  The people of Ampelakia were daring. They had visited and inhabited a lot of great European cities where they created close relationships with European merchants. This way they acquired useful information about trading and the industry of other countries where they thought to export their own scarlet red yarns. Also, with the help of merchants from Epirus they exported to Austria and Germany. Europeans got very surprised by the brightness and gloss of color that yarns had - that made them be unique - and of their fine elaboration. From the very beginning, the people of Ampelakia met with great success and secured a large disposal of their products. Thus, around 1750–1760 the first company, on a family basis, was formed. Within just a few years five companies functioned and employed about a thousand craftsmen.
  These were the companies of N. Pessios Arsenis Chatziprassas, Drossinos Chatzievos, G. Papaefthymios and George Schwartz. In 1778 the leaders of the companies took the initiative and decided the union of the whole companies in one Common Company under the name of " Common Company and Brotherhood of Ampelakia". That was because there had begun a harmful competition among the companies and because the orders had continually been increasing. During the existence of this cooperative, George Mavros(Schwartz) was the only and one chairman. He was the son of a significant merchant. He was born at Ampelakia in 1738 and died in Vienna in 1818 at the age of 80.
  All the people of Ampelakia, men, women and children were shareholders of that large cooperative business. The landowners share in with their fields, the fund holders with their money, the craftsmen and workers w
caption: Saint Athanasius church
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