Panagiotis Sekeris

Panagiotis Sekeris (Tripolitsa 1783 – Nafplio 1846) was a merchant and a leading member of Filiki Eteria (Society of Friends). His archive, an important and reliable source for the history of Filiki Eteria, consists of 14 documents and a very comprehensive manuscript, which contains accounts of Filiki Eteria, copies of 89 letters of Panagiotis Sekeris from Constantinople and Odessa, from August 1818 until August 1821, as well as a list of 520 members with the marks of recognition of each one.

Panagiotis Sekeris was born in Tripolitsa, in 1783 and was the son of the merchant Dimitrios Sekeris. He attended the thriving school of Dimitsana. In 1798, at the age of 15, he witnessed his father’s murder, which forced him to leave Tripoli and flee to Spetses. There, he stayed with his uncle and worked as an apprentice at his merchant business. Shortly afterwards, he went to Constantinople, where he soon became a highly capable wholesale merchant with a fleet of 15 ships, while, at the same time, he established branches of his business in Odessa and Moscow.

Sekeris was initiated into the Filiki Eteria by Panagiotis Anagnostopoulos on 5 May 1818, in Constantinople, as it seems from a letter that he sent to his brother, Georgios Sekeris. Georgios was studying in Paris and was the first member who was initiated into the Filiki Eteria, immediately after its establishment (the initiation, by Nikolaos Skoufas, took place in Moscow in 1814).

Sekeris was then 35 years old and his cash contribution to Filiki Eteria was 10,000 kuruş, which was more than double the amount that Filiki Eteria had managed to raise within four years since its foundation. The initiation of Panagiotis Sekeris was crucial, because, through him, Filiki Eteria entered the circles of Constantinople merchants, who supported the economy, while his influence and abilities facilitated the expansion of Society’s network. Moreover, he initiated several merchants and ship captains from the Aegean and Ionian Sea himself.

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