After a decade of wars, which had culminated in the abortive Asia Minor campaign and the forced population exchange of 1922, the Greek economy needed an injection of capital to heal its wounds, settle its refugees and build up its economic infrastructure.
* * * In 1903, the Italian inventor Marconi demonstrated his new invention, a wireless telegraph, to a large audience. It didn’t go too well for him, though. The machine itself did work in the sense that it transmitted a message. However, it was not the message the audience – or Marconi – had expected. The word “rats” was being sent again and again.