A landmark in the Vagliano’s shipping business, was the creation of a hybrid ship management office in London. The multinational dimension of their managing-agency operations made their London office a national bureau of sorts—a conduit enabling Greek shipowners to engage in international business. Essentially, this was a shipping company and agency for the national Greek fleet. Their London office created in 1858 provided the first model of a modern ship-management firm and became the driving force behind the globalization of both Greek-owned shipping and bulk shipping all over the world. The career of Aristotle Onassis was one of the results of the Vaglianos’ innovations. Onassis started his business from one of the twenty London offices that were formed after the death of Panaghi Vagliano. The Vagliano brothers pioneered the transition of Greek-owned shipping from sail to steam. They were prime movers in adopting steamships, launching an unprecedented programme of new ship building in British yards in the late 1870s to early 1880s.

The unique success of the Greeks was that they created the global shipping business while still retaining the traditional family character that had characterized Greek shipping. What happened to the Vagliano and Onassis businesses after their deaths? They both left public benefit foundations and a great legacy in Greek shipping. Their main contribution was in developing the institution of the shipping firm. The element that characterised them was innovation in management and in the creation of new institutional framework in shipping business at critical moments of transition of the Greek shipping business. The Vaglianos invented the “London shipping office,” a hybrid form of shipowning and ship-management office that led Greek shipping firms into the twentieth century. Onassis pioneered the modern model of the global shipping company, with the use of multiple offshore companies, flags of convenience and management from many locations. The stories of the two businesses indicate the use of the local to reach the global, of how local European maritime culture has made the world trade function.