The decline and final disintegration of the Venetian Republic's power enabled merchants in the Ionian Islands to expand their activities, although the centuries old relationship had created networks strong enough to survive up to the 19th century. As the economy of the islands was transformed and adjusted to British imperial requirements, merchants from and in the islands maintained traditional patterns of trade while establishing new commercial networks with both the east and the west. This was largely due to the boom in currant trade and the rapid increase of the Black Sea grain trade. The development of new economic institutionsand mechanisms of exchange contributed substantially to the construction and adoption of the networks described. These institutions were established with the agency of merchants and the cooperation between the merchant elite and the British authorities, both aiming at promoting the liberal idea of progress through commerce. However, competition between capital holders intensified towards the end of the period of British rule, as Greek economic interests appeared on the stage and as networks of merchants looking ahead of their time were formed with both the National Bank of Greece and maritime insurance interests in Greece. Throughout the centuries old networs gradually gave way to new onews, as changes in the economy and in the power politics of the time directed the regional, but increasingly internationalized economy of the Ionian Islands.