The Elders held power (the legislative, the executive and the judicial power) and as a result the Turks’ administration was rudimentary.  The Elders who held power over the town and the villages was appointed by the Ottoman authorities.  Forty two (42) villages out of the sixty-six (66) were administered by the Elders.  The villages of Vasilioniko, Karies and Dafnonas had their own notable, called Neroulas.  Mastihohoria (twenty one villages) were part of another prefecture administration. In each village two elders were elected.  In Mastihohoria, though, Vekilides (two Greek commissars) were elected. 

Every year Aghas came from Constantinople so as to collect the taxes and the appropriated quantity of mastic for the Sultan’s palace.  The Elders held the judicial power and in Mezas they judged cases not only between Greeks but also between Greeks and Ottomans.

In that period in Chios there were

1. The great School of Chios
2. Hospital
3. Leper-house
4. Lazaretto
5. Library

Diamantis Korais (Adamantios Korais’ grandfather) taught in the School of Chios as well as Neofitos Kafsokalivitis, Athanasios Parios and Neofitos Vamvas. Some famous Greek students graduated from this School such as Theofilos Kairis, Veniamin Lesvios and Nikolaos Logadis.  The construction of the Hospital started in 1750 – under the doctor Petros Skilitsis’ supervision - and finished in 1780.  It housed one hundred and thirty (130) patients,  thirty elderly and poor as well as ten lunatics, but not lepers. Three health officers who worked in Lazaretto checked the patient’s condition and when plague was diagnosed, the patient’s relatives were forced to leave him there and to burn all his clothes and possessions.  The lepers were housed in the Leper-house.  They were approximately one hundred and fifty (150) and they were not only Chians but they also came from the island of Lesvos.  They were under no medical treatment because leper was believed to be an incurable disease.

At the end of the 18th century the population of Chios was one hundred and ten thousand (110,000). Thirty thousand (30,000) lived in the town of Chios while the others resided in the villages of the island (according to the traveler Olivier).  Just before the revolution of 1821 Chios was one of the most important trade centers of that time and that was the reason why Chians did not participate in the revolution right from the beginning.