Due to the Ottomans great shipping requirements, Hydra made great progress in shipping and trade. They built the first big ships, the so called Latinadika, of 150-200 dwt and then brigs and schooners of 250-300 dwt, which were eminently suitable for the East Mediterranean. The Russian-Turkish treaty of Kioutsouk Kainartzi (1774), which ensured free navigation in the Mediterranean under the Russian flag, gave the people of Hydra, Spetses Psara and Kafos opportunity to dominate sea trade.

The Napoleonic wars, which followed the French Revolution of 1789, provided Hydra its last big trade opportunity. Ship owners from Hydra took advantage of the fact that the warring west Europeans had difficulty trading due to the port boycotts in the west Mediterranean by the English. They supplied wheat and other goods, quickly becoming masters at the game of running blockades.