Missionaries as Merchants and Mercenaries: Religious Controversies over Commerce in Southeast Asia

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Abstract

This chapter explores a series of controversies that erupted between missionaries of various Catholic religious orders working in seventeenth-century Southeast Asia about the role of commerce in evangelisation. Using accounts from a range of largely under-explored archives, it provides a detailed comparative account of the practical strategies employed by missionaries to move and trade necessary commodities, to manage specie, to fund missions, and to manage costs. Enflamed by jurisdictional and methodological disagreements between different religious orders, intense public and private debates raged about the propriety of almost all methods used to achieve these ends. Particularly controversial were the establishment of commercial networks and involvement in trade by various religious orders around Southeast Asia, and the numerous financial and commercial innovations developed by them to suit local realities on diverse mission fields. Anxieties about a number of controversial practices filtered into missionary rhetoric in intriguing ways. This chapter will explore the role of commerce, specie, trade and market exchange on the mission fields and within discourse about missionary spirituality.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationTrade and Finance in Global Missions (16th-18th Centuries)
EditorsHélène Vu Thanh, Ines G. Županov
PublisherBrill
Chapter10
Pages237-268
Number of pages32
ISBN (Electronic)9789004444195
ISBN (Print)9789004444171
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 7 Dec 2020

Publication series

NameStudies in Christian Mission
PublisherBrill
Volume57
ISSN (Print)0924-9389

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