Before the close of the war-torn 1870s, industrial progress was evident only in Thessaloniki, where the increased use of steam was essential to meet ballooning urban and military needs. Nevertheless, the growth of craft and heavy industry (there were only a few factories in this category) was linked with the rail connection with central Europe (1888) and businesses' ensuing struggle to survive the influx of goods from that region.
The Allatini flour-mills
G. Megas archive, 1898-1917
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In the 1890s, the thread and textile industry began to thrive in western Macedonia (Veroia, Naousa, Edessa). In the following years, the opening of the rail line between Thessaloniki and Monastir (1895), the rise in import tariffs (1908), the cancellation of import duties on machinery (1908) and the use of power from waterfalls gave a new boost to the business community. For example, from 1891 to 1906 the production of cotton thread in Naousa more than doubled, growing by an additional 80% in the remaining six years of the Ottoman period.
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