Economic Enterprises of the Basel Mission Society in the Gold Coast: A Study of the Basel Mission Trading Company from 1859 To 1917

Abstract

During the ninety years of operation on the Gold Coast (1828-1918), the Basel missionaries did not limit themselves to their primary task of evangelism. As part of the efforts to achieve their aim of total social transformation of converts, the missionaries promoted the establishment of schools, linguistic studies, agricultural experimentation and other economic ventures. A trading post which evolved into the Basel Mission Trading Company (BMTC) was established at Christiansborg in 1859 to take charge of all their economic ventures. This study documents the attempt by the Basel Mission Trading Company to transmit the Mission’s work ethic and practices to its converts through its operations. Financial difficulties constrained the Basel Mission Society (BMS) to become self-supporting; and the Basel Mission Trading Company’s profits provided support for its educational and other missionary activities. Drawing on available archival and secondary materials with supplementary sources from oral data on the activities of the Basel Mission Society in the Gold Coast, this study examines the Basel Mission Trading Company as an economic institution and the interplay between Christianity and commerce in the quest for moral and material regeneration of the African society.