The signing of the second English loan
THE IMPACT OF 1821 IN GREECE AND ON THE WORLD
1825

The signing of the second English loan

On January 26, 1825, Greece (with Ioannis Orlandos and Andreas Louriotis as the negotiators) took out a second loan. The loan's nominal value was £2,000,000, but the amount released was set at 55% of the nominal value (£816,000), with £284,000 held as a two-year interest deposit, repayment, commission, and other costs. The management of the second loan was taken over by English bankers and the London Philhellenic Committee members. A huge percentage was allocated to the refinancing of the first loan, for the purchase of weapons and firearms, of which few arrived in Greece, for the order of 6 steam-powered ships, of which only three arrived in Greece and for the construction of two frigates in New York shipyards, of which only one arrived in Greece. This way, the amount of money from the loan that reached Greece at the end barely exceeded 232,000 pounds, i.e., about 1/9 of the original loan. Regardless, this amount, on the one hand, strengthened the Greek army, to a certain extent, especially the navy, and on the other hand managed to establish that the Greek interests were common with those of the English banks since a possible collapse of the Greek front would lead to the loss of their money.