Ralli Brothers Ltd , merchants

The Ralli family, originally from the Greek island of Chios, were involved from the 18th century in the mercantile trade between the Levant and Europe with bases in several European and Mediterranean ports. In the early nineteenth century, two brothers, John Stephen Ralli and Eustratio Stephen Ralli, established an arm of the merchant business in London. "Eustratio Ralli and Company, merchants" appears in London directories at various addresses, chiefly 4 Billiter Square, 1819-27, together with "Ralli and Petrocochino, Turkey merchants, 5 Union Court, Broad Street", 1820-1; "PG Ralli and Company, merchants", also at 5 Union Court, 1821-3; and "Ralli Brothers, merchants", again at 5 Union Court, 1823-6, but from 1826 chiefly at 25 Finsbury Circus, where the firm then remained for nearly 150 years, to 1961.

Three further brothers were based abroad, Augustus in Marseilles, Thomas in Constantinople and also Pandira Stephen, who in 1826 came to work in London, shortly before John Stephen left London to take up business in Odessa in 1827. The five brothers worked in partnership, trading with Europe and particularly in the Mediterranean. The records refer to various countries, including Austria, France, Greece, Italy, Persia, Russia and Turkey, and also to the Baltic, and to a wide variety of commodities, including grain, silk and wool.

The company also traded in cotton piece goods, and a Manchester branch was opened in 1827, a Calcutta branch in 1851, and a Bombay branch ten years later. The firm remained a family partnership until 1931, when it became a private limited company, Ralli Brothers Limited. In the meantime, it had expanded its operations into a number of other countries, but little of this is reflected in the surviving archives, which date mostly from before 1860. Ralli Brothers Limited became a public company in 1941, and in 1959 was taken over by General Guarantee Corporation Limited. It subsequently became part of the Bowater Group.