This work aims to analyse the two Greek land reforms, not only from an economic but also a social-political point of view. Using a wide selection of sources and a selected bibliography, the author gives account of a fundamental phenomenon in the contemporary history of Greece: the triumph of the small-scale familiar peasant exploitation. This did not impede, as it is also shown in this article, the spreading of export crops (currant, tobacco, etc.) whose boom is a second feature of the matter at issue.