7 1911 ommerce and Missions BY y Dr. James S. Dennis LAYMEN’S MISSIONARY MOVEMENT 1 Madison Avenue New York COMMERCE AND MISSIONS. v/ By Dr. James S. Dennis. {Readers who are interested to study the subject further will find a wealth of material in “Christian Missions and Social Progress” by the same author.) It should be freely acknowledged at the outset that commerce has, in its turn, rendered valuable service to missions, giving to them the benefit of its facilities of communication and transportation, as well as ministering in many ways to their advancement, and to the supply of their varied needs. Since the time when the earliest Christian missions followed the great trade routes of the world, and especially since the introduction of steam and electricity, missions have benefited by the means of transport which commerce has established and maintained. In spite of much on the part of commerce that incidentally has been detri- mental to the missionary cause, a profitable inter- change of service can nevertheless be demonstrated. The evils and sins of commerce are not essentially identified with it. Its nobler spirit and its more honor- able methods may be regarded as both favorable and serviceable to the aims of the missionary. Missions, on the other hand, have in their turn proved help- ful to commerce by their insistence upon moral standards, by their discipline in matters of good faith and moral rectitude, by their suggestions, at least among their own native constituencies, as to improved financial methods, by their promotion of trade with the outer world, and by the stimulus they have given to the introduction of the conveniences and facilities of modern civilization. They have, moreover, been 2 Commerce and Missions sponsors for industrial training in many fields, which has given an economic worth to native converts, and turned them from their trails of blood and plunder into paths of useful labor, and the cultivation of peaceful industry. We have a broad range of research here open to us in this inquiry as to the relations between missions and commerce — not international trade merely, but also commercial progress in its local environment among native races. We are to inquire whether these two agencies, commerce from without, and mission stimulus and enlightenment in various fields, have been workers together for the commercial benefit of the world. Have missions been influential to any extent in opening avenues for commerce, and in pro- moting its activities? Have they ministered to its moral tone, and taught lessons in the school of in- tegrity? Have they helped to broaden the world’s markets, to swell the ranks of both the consumer and the producer, and to enlarge the range of both supply and demand? Is commerce historically in debt to missions, and has the past century greatly increased that indebtedness? May we regard the opportunities of international commerce as due in part to the co- operation of missions, by reason of their ministrations — persuasive, illuminating, and instructive — in remov- ing hindrances to openings among native races, and in promoting an interchange of outgoing and incoming commodities? If it can be shown with reasonable clearness that even indirectly the influence of mis- sions has been helpful in these respects, should we not frankly credit the missionary enterprise with a share in bringing about favorable conditions which have manifestly proved a benefit and an incentive to commerce ? Commerce and Missions 3 It will not escape the tpioughtful student THAT IT IS THE PROGRESSIVE NATIVE RACES WHICH IN- VITE COMMERCE, AND OFFER EVER ENLARGING SCOPE TO ITS ACTIVITIES. Education gives an inquiring outward vision to provincial minds, and calls for the best the world can bring to it of the material facilities and the industrial achievements of the higher civilizations. It is confessedly the missionary who has put to school the backward native races of the world, and has in- spired them with desires for higher living, and led them to a finer appreciation of the better things of civilization. International intercourse and good un- derstanding manifestly promoted by missions bespeak commercial interchange, while trade is favored and advanced by all that missions are doing to establish inter-racial rapprochement throughout the earth. The services of the missionary as a pioneer explorer, and a promoter of industrial missions, has blazed a pathway for commerce. The merchant often reaps a harvest in trade where the missionary has previously sown the seeds of ethical, social, and economic trans- formation. In this general sense the making of a broader and finer national life becomes the guarantee of enlarged commercial intercourse. A study of the growth of trade in the countries of the Far East will show that it has generally been contemporaneous with missionary progress, which has manifestly had a part to play — not often conspicuous, indeed, but no less real in its promotion and development. For over a century the modern missionary move- ment has been quietly at work, vitalizing the dormant life of backward continents. Little attention has been given to it by the great preoccupied world, and some have even condemned the varied services which mis- sions have rendered in distant regions as useless 4 Commerce and Missions waste. Some have even ventured to berate the wh».._ missionary enterprise as an impertinent intrusion, and it has been made the sport of supercilious critics, and in some quarters it has even been regarded as a troublesome handicap to plans of commercial and political exploitation. Yet all this time missions have been quietly and patiently toiling for the introduction of a better life, a larger outlook, finer moral standards, a higher intelligence, and a fuller preparation of great races for a swiftly approaching era of social, indus- trial, political, and commercial progress, which has already announced itself as a great historic turning- point in the progress of mankind. These great races among which this quiet ministry of uplift and trans- formation has been going on may be after all children of destiny in the world’s history. No one can venture to predict the career which awaits the great nations of the East when they have found themselves, and have eagerly entered upon the inheritance of the riches which the discoveries, inventions, and achievements of Western civilization have made ready for them to appropriate and use. Do WE REALIZE WHAT A STIMULUS TO COMMERCE IS THE SPREAD OF INTELLIGENCE FOR WHICH MISSIONS HAVE been SPONSORS DURING LONG AND OBSCURE YEARS OF PATIENT LABOR? Commerce may be said to depend for its success not only upon favoring economic con- ditions, but upon certain mental gifts and training suited to promote business interchange. Some of this mental training pertains to the individual, and some to the status of society. Commerce does not depend for its prosperity simply upon the existence of good facilities for transportation, and wise, safe methods of financial exchange, useful as these may be, but where it is to be introduced among inferior races Commerce and Missions 5 there must be also a certain measure of receptivity on the part of those among whom it is sought to estab- lish a market. There must be a certain responsive spirit of enterprise in those whose trade is sought, a degree of intelligence and insight as to the advantages offered, a recognition of the superior quality of the wares proffered, a capacity to appreciate and enjoy new things, a measure of dissatisfaction with the status of a rude and savage environment — in short, an all-round awakening to a new and broader life, and an aroused consciousness of the existence of an outside world, with its abounding supply of delectable and useful commodities, desirable for their intrinsic worth and their fitness to satisfy the natural cravings of culture and quickened lives. In the light of these considerations, it becomes a question whether com- merce itself might not wisely invest in missions, on behalf of its own interests, since education, social uplift, and mental receptivity, are everywhere the completement of that new and broadened life which missions introduce, and are therefore of undoubted value in opening the way for commercial and national advancement. It becomes, therefore, a function — in large part an unconscious function — of missions to create condi- tions favorable to commerce. Their manifest tendency to stimulate the mind, to arouse energy, to quicken ambition, to bring native races into a sympathetic at- titude toward civilization, and to widen their knowl- edge of the world and its wonders, makes the ministry' of missions helpful in promoting commercial inter- course. A missionary has put it concisely and sug- gestively in the remark; “The first call of a convert from heathenism is for clean clothes, and a better house.” Clean clothing is suggestive of a long list 6 Commerce and Missions of textiles, and a better house implies the importation of a cargo of industrial products. Native races that accept Christianity almost invariably increase their imports. It has been estimated that English missions promote trade to the value of ten pounds for every pound of outlay expended in their founding and support. The significance of this to the United States is obvious when we consider that within thirty years from the fourth place among the nations as regards exports, we advanced in 1905 to the first place among all the nations as an exporting country, although of late we have lost slightly the primacy of that year. As a typical illustration of the general remarks of preceding paragraphs, let us look at one of the prac- tical results of missionary education. It naturally creates a demand for literature. Literature, in its turn, calls for presses, and all the facilities for print- ing, electrotyping, binding, and distributing of books, both large and small, as well as periodicals, news- papers, circulars, pamphlets, and advertisements, in all their variety. From the seed which missionary education plants, unknown millions of prospective readers will soon call — are even now beginning to call loudly — , through commercial channels, for presses, and machinery to run them, as well as for paper, type, ink, electrotyping, cutting, and type-setting machines, engraving and illustrating facilities, and every other addenda and necessary tool of journalism and the publishing business in general. We are accustomed to honor pioneers in every department of enterprise; the missionary is surely entitled to be ranked as such in this business of awakening potential brain power, and stimulating the hunger of the mind for those in- tellectual supplies which require an extensive impor- Commerce and Missions 7 tation of facilities, and the establishment of large in- dustrial plants to furnish them. We might refer here also to the stimulus given to this department of trade outside of the direct efforts of missionaries to supply this intellectual pabulum. The Asiatic has a keen scent for new business which is profitable. The whole enterprise of printing, quite outside of the circle of missions, has entered upon an era of expansion and growth, especially in China, where journalism and literary production are in a state of phenomenal efflorescence. In so far as missionary education has had its influence in awakening China, it has also been of service in promoting the commercial activity in- volved in the intellectual renaissance of that great nation. The typical illustration given in the preceding paragraph might be multiplied and traced out in many other directions. “The Gospel has added a second story to our houses,” remarked a mission convert in Eastern Asia. The statement might be supplemented by a reference to the glass windows, the kerosene lamps, the stoves, the table-ware, the furniture, the pictures, the plumbing, the sewing- machines, and the new style of clothing, which are all quite likely to be the addenda of the added story. There is surely a hidden affinity between the mar- velous commercial expansion of the present age, planning to take possession of all continents, and the enterprise of missions, aiming at the enlightenment and moral transformation of all races. There must be a deeply significant coincidence in the commercial stir and expansion of the times, and the vivifying touch of missionary enterprise, which is awakening dormant races to behold the shining of a great light, and to hail the dawn of a brightening day. 8 Commerce and Missions Henry Venn, a distinguished Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, nearly half a century ago estimated that, “When a missionary had been abroad twenty years he was worth ten thousand pounds a year to British commerce.” It is a little over fifty years (1857) since Livingstone remarked in the Senate House at Cambridge University: “I go back to Africa to try to make an open path for commerce and Christianity.” That “open path for commerce,” applying the expression to the entire African Con- tinent, has already led to markets of gigantic promise, which in the estimation of some optimistic judges have even more prospective value than those of Eastern Asia, since Japan and China may ere long compete with the West, while Africa in all prob- ability will remain for generations chiefly a consumer. Surely the day of Africa’s commercial as well as political renaissance has dawned in a flood of light athwart the entire continent. The immense coast line of Africa offers ready access to the ships of all nations. Railways by the score, finished even now to the extent of many thousand miles, are pushing into the interior, while rivers and lakes are traversed by a constantly increasing fleet of steamers. The “Cape to Cairo” line, the Congo Railway, and that wonder- ful line into the heart of Uganda, are prophetic of an era of railway expansion of continental propor- tions. “This is our victory,” commerce doubtless will say, and this may be conceded in large measure; but the influence and helpfulness of missions as factors in the transformation cannot be justly ignored. All the facilities for commerce may exist in certain sec- tions of the continent, and yet the developments of trade may be comparatively meagre. The native com- munity may be still inert and unambitious, and the Commerce and Missions 9 old list of goods, and the childish trinkets of barter meanwhile satisfy every requirement. “Tools are not bought,” wrote the late Dr. Grenfell of the Baptist Mission on the Congo, concerning certain interior regions, “because no one has taught the people their use, and the old style of temporary hut remains, in which the appointments and furniture of civilization would be absurdly out of place, even if there were any desire to possess them. Nor does native energy, as a rule, look beyond immediate and pressing wants, and thus the fine wares of commerce possess little or no attraction. Trade lags, and the old times with their simple wants and primitive conditions drag themselves along from generation to generation.” In other localities, however, where missionary enter- prise has entered, and its quickening influences have been felt, a change comes over the native attitude toward civilization, and all that it stands for and in- troduces. Commerce soon recognizes the meaning of this educational and economic transformation, and is apt quickly to avail itself of the opportunities thus secured. It may seem somewhat imaginative to connect these great railway achievements to which we have referred even in a remote way with missions, and yet it is curious to note that so far back as 1860, at the time of the consecration of Bishop Mackenzie as a missionary to what is now the Nyasaland Protec- torate, Bishop Gray designated the work entrusted to the new Bishop as “the first link in a chain of mis- sions which should stretch one day from Cape Town to Cairo.” Livingstone was a pioneer figure in that section of Africa even at an earlier date, and since then English, Scotch, Continental, and American missions, all along that proposed route, have been 10 Commerce and Missions contributing appreciable aid in opening the way and building the moral and social road-bed for the “Cape to Cairo” express, which now already rolls northward until it crosses the Zambesi at Victoria Falls, and approaches from the north toward the boundary lines of Uganda. The magnificent achievement of the Uganda Railway must be regarded of course as one of the colossal ventures of British imperialism, but back of the railway is that initial missionary occupation of Uganda, in 1877, where a group of devoted men and women lived for a period of thirteen years, without British protection. It was Mackay who first sug- gested the (at that time) almost unthinkable project of “a railway from the coast to the lake,” and in 1891, when the Imperial British East Africa Com- pany proposed to evacuate Uganda, and the British Government hesitated as to whether it was worth while to assume the responsible control, it was the financial subsidy of forty thousand pounds placed in the treasury of the Imperial British East Africa Com- pany — in large part by the supporters of missions in England — which tided over the situation for a year, and delayed the date assigned for the evacuation until March 31, 1893. The patrons of the Church Mis- sionary Society advanced sixteen thousand pounds of this amount, and their enthusiasm, backed by the moral pressure of the friends of missions in England, under the leadership of the Church Missionary So- ciety, proved an influential factor in securing the appointment of the Government Commission of In- quiry, under Sir Gerald Portal, in 1892, to determine the best solution of the problem of Uganda. The result of these tentative inquiries on the part of the Government was the establishment of a British Pro- Commerce and Missions 11 tectorate, declared in 1894, and this was followed by the Uganda Railway opened in 1902, from IMombasa to Port Florence, on the Victoria Nyanza. The building of this railway involved an outlay by the British Government of £5,550,000, or about $27,- 700,000. It is 584 miles in length, and scales moun- tain heights at an altitude of over eight thousand feet. In his report advocating the establishment of a British Protectorate, Sir Gerald Portal “stated that he considered Uganda to be the key to the Nile Valley, securing entrance as it does to some of the richest sections of Central Africa, and holding out, there- fore, the promise of profitable commerce. The mis- sionary devotion of that initial dash into Uganda, those heroic years of lonely and perilous missionary occupation, and that alert and strenuous rally of the friends of the Mission at the critical hour, should count for much in any fair and just estimate of the historic forces to which the credit of the present outcome in Uganda belongs. The commercial prospects of that portion of Central Africa and its large outlying regions have surely been greatly im- proved by the fact that the missionary type of civili- zation was first introduced, and with its enlighten- ing and educating influences has gained a powerful hold on the people. This fact will do much to safe- guard the best interests of commerce. In the Nyasaland Protectorate, around Lake Nyasa, we find that further credit may be accorded to missions, in view of the encouragement and prac- tical stimulus which they have given to commerce. It was by this route that Livingstone’s “open path” entered the continent, and in his own haunts around Lake Nyasa trade expansion has been marked. Blantyre has become the commercial centre of British 12 Commerce and IMissions Central Africa, and there is a growing demand in that region for the trained and educated native em- ployees that the educational and industrial depart- ments of the missions are supplying. It was a turbulent and warlike region, and the attention of the natives was about equally divided among war and plunder and the slave-trade. The lessons of legitimate trade were learned from the missionary. It was regarded as the best preventive of destructive tribal feuds, while also providing a substitute for the slave-trade, and so opening an easier and safer way for the natives to secure the goods they ere long- craved. Instead of raids, robbery, pillage, the hor- rors of the slave-pen, and the traffic in human chat- tels, they were led to cultivate the soil, or engage in some harmless and honest line of trade, and thus were enabled to secure in the end, by peaceful and useful industry, their reward of calico, beads, hatchets, and similar wares, so dear to the native heart. That “dogged little band’’ of Scottish missionaries were unquestionably the pioneers of legitimate commerce in Nyasaland, afterwards known as the British Central Africa Protectorate, but recently named the Nyasaland Protectorate. These initial trade movements soon became too complex and extended for missionary supervision. It was, moreover, not properly within that sphere of service, and so in response to representations giving the facts of the situation there was formed as early as 1876, a Chartered Company in Scotland, with suf- ficient capital, and the necessary organization to as- sume the responsible local management of the trade, and develop the important traffic along productive lines. The Livingstonia Central Africa Trading Com- Commerce and Missions 13 pany, better known as the African Lakes Corporation, was the result, with a layman, Mr. James Stevenson, a devoted friend and supporter of missions, as its Chairman. This Company in time introduced steamers, and so more speedily built up trade. In 1879 its only steam vessel in the region was the “Lady Nyasa.” It has now a whole fleet of steamers navigating the Lake. At the beginning of 1875 there was not a steamer on either Lake Nyasa or Lake Tanganyika, but in October of that year the little “Ilala,” with a Scottish missionary at the helm, entered the waters of Lake Nyasa. Gathered on its deck were the members of the Livingstonia Mission, and they were so impressed with the significance of the incident that they engaged in a brief season of worship. Steam was shut off, and the vessel floated calmly and silently on the waters, while the noble Psalm, “All people that on earth do dwell,” rang out as though to consecrate the achievement to the glory of God. In 1893 the combined steam fleets of the two lakes numbered nearly forty vessels. The trade which was established at that time was Christian trade, free from greed and fraud, and guiltless of gin and other deadly products. Steamers now traverse the neighboring lakes, and navigate the rivers to the coast, where at Chinde they meet the Ocean Liners of British, German, Portuguese, and other companies. The railway from Chiromo to Blantyre is to-day com- pleted, and will no doubt ultimately be extended to Lake Nyasa. In 1907 the imports of the Nyasaland Proctectorate amounted to £242,934, and the exports to £50,247. It would occupy too much space to attempt to trace in detail the missionary evidence of trade pros- perity in South Africa. It is enough to say that it 14 Commerce and Missions began under missionary tutelage among native tribes. In 1870, the venerable Dr. I^Ioffat speaking of what had occurred under his own observation, remafked on this subject: “In former times the natives could not be prevailed upon to buy anything from traders in the shape of merchandise, not even so much as a pocket-handkerchief. Such articles could not be dis- posed of, as the natives were not enlightened suf- ficiently to appreciate anything like that. If they did buy, it would be only a few trinkets, or some beads, but nothing of a substantial character was ever bought. It is not so now (in 1870), however, for no less than sixty thousand pounds worth of British manufactures pass yearly into the hands of the native tribes near and about Kuruman.” About twenty- five years ago, the Rev. James Dalzell, ]\I.D., a Scottish missionary in Natal, made a careful computation that a native kraal untouched by missions called for imported goods to the extent of only two pounds annually ; while each educated native Christian consumed, or required, imports every year to the extent of twenty pounds. The Zulu Christian community at that time represented an ag- gregate of eighty thousand pounds on the import list of Natal. It is reported concerning Dr. Philip of the London I^Iissionary Society that as early as 1818 he arranged with a Christian merchant to open a store in Bethelsdorp for the purpose of awakening the spirit of trade, and bringing to the attention of the natives numerous useful and attractive articles. To quote Dr. Sylvester Horne, in “The Story of the L. ]\I. S.” : “The effect was remarkable. . . . The significance was that in a verj' short time the whole aspect of Bethelsdorp underwent a change. Not only were the unsightly huts replaced in many Commerce and Missions 15 instances by decent houses, but the spirit of activity and industr)' transformed the life of the people. ... In 1823 the village of Bethelsdorp was paying more than five hundred pounds a year in taxes to the Government, and buying five thousand pounds worth of British goods eveiy^ year.” It must not be forgotten that missionary ex- PLOR.\TION IS USUALLY THE FORERUNNER OF TRADE: the discovery of native races by missionar)^ pioneers admittedly opens the way for commerce, since it heralds the coming of the trader, gives the signal to the enterprise of the merchant, and eventually does much, not only to insure his prosperity, but his safety. We have a^ clear example of this in the island of Xew Guinea, where missionarj' courage and devotion may be said to have opened the door both to political sovereignty and commercial enterprise. British, Dutch, and German missions prepared the way for the entrance of commerce. The total population of 660,000, of which over one-half belong to British ter- ritor}', have been, and still are, in process of trans- formation from bestial savager}^ to civilized citizen- ship. The line which separates safety from peril, and marks the limits of intelligence and order, dif- ferentiating the sphere of trade from the regions of rapine and barbarity, has been drawn for a generation along the frontier made by the missionary outposts. Generous official recognition of the political value of this preliminaiA' seiA’ice of missions has been accorded by the British authorities, and that there has been also a commercial value is no less apparent. The trade returns of British Xew Guinea, as reported for 1908, will sufficiently indicate this. The imports of that year are stated in the “Statesman’s Year Book,” of 1909, to be £94,061, and the exports, £80,616, 16 Commerce and Missions making a total valuation of £174,677, or about $850,- 000. The sum total of trade in German New Guinea in 1907 amounted to $268,320, much the larger part of which was in imports. This is com- merce in miniature, one may say, but it represents the advance of a little over a quarter of a century, in a land which for ages had been given over to the most dismal and menacing savagery. There are numerous islands in the Pacific that have been thus redeemed from barbarism, and brought within commercial touch of civilization by pioneer missionary occupation. With the acceptance of Chris- tian teachings the natives of many of these islands have turned from their savagery, and , given them- selves to agricultural and industrial pursuits. Many of the centres of missionary work in the South Pacific have become also centres of trade. Services like these it will be acknowledged are in the interests of commerce. Let missionaries through- out the world retire from their service among non- Christian races, and it is almost certain that many times the amount it costs to support them would soon be added to the war budgets of the world. Credit must be given to missions for the ESTABLISHMENT OF INDUSTRIAL TRAINING IN MANY FIELDS. The Basel Mission has a notable record in the industrial and technical training of its converts. In some prominent mission fields the industrial train- ing has assumed such proportions that it has been found necessary to commit it to the administration of business corporations established under the direc- tion and supervision of the friends of missions in Western lands. An example is the “Uganda Com- pany, Limited,” organized in 1903, and which now pays a moderate dividend, the object of the enterprise Commerce and Missions 17 being to assume the business industries which before that date had been conducted by the Church Mis- sionary Society in the Uganda Protectorate. The “East African Industries, Limited,” is a similar com- pany, organized in 1906, on the East Coast. In New Guinea we find a like enterprise, entitled, “Papuan Industries, Limited,” the object of which is to facili- tate the growth and prosperity of the industrial efforts previously organized by the London Missionary Society. The Company is now engaged in the culti- vation of plantations producing cocoanut, rubber, cocoa, coffee, and cotton, and in the lumber trade, which is a valuable business in New Guinea. The “Scottish Mission Industries Company” has been in- corporated, to assume the management of business interests in India which have quite outgrown the initiative of the United Free Church of Scotland. Within recent years a group of Industrial Missions has sprung up, as the Zambesi Industrial Mission, the Nyasa Industrial Mission, and the Baptist Industrial Mission of Scotland, all of which have their field of operation in British Central Africa. Industrial features have been made a specialty also by the East Coast Mission of the English Friends, on the island of Pemba, and by a similar enterprise conducted by the American Friends in British East Africa, among the Kavirondo people. The General Synod of the Lutheran Church has an extensive industrial plant on the West Coast. Other enterprises of a like nature might be referred to, mostly in various locali- ties of Africa. The American Methodist Missions in Mashonaland, Rhodesia, under the supervision of Bishop Hartzell, and those of the American Board in the same region, are worthy of note. The benefits of industrial training among uncivilized races can 18 Commerce and Missions hardly be challenged. A large and interesting field of missionary operations spreads out before us in this connection, the extent and the moral, as well as commercial significance of which are but little known. The influence of missions has been also HELPFUL TO COMMERCE, BY REASON OF THE DIGNITY IT HAS GIVEN TO LABOR, AND THE EMPHASIS WHICH IT HAS LAID UPON THE REWARDS OF FRUGALITY AND THRIFT. Christianity has infused a conscience into the spirit of common labor, and has imparted a cer- tain sacredness to the ordinary duties of life. The early Christian missionaries of Europe were the pioneers of industry, as well as of religion. It was they who introduced the ideal of peaceful and in- dustrious toil, in settled homes, as an offset to the wild life of adventure and brigandage which was the ambition of early barbarism. Montalembert, in his “Monks of the West,” declares that the “ensign and emblazonry of the entire history of the monks during those early ages was, ‘Cruce et Aratro.’ ” In the same way, in the environment of modern savagery, mis- sions have studiously striven to ennoble honest toil, and to deliver it from the contempt which, according to the notions of untamed tribes, seemed to be at- tached to it. They have steadily sought to be “the moral regenerator of labor, wherever it is, and its moral founder, wherever it is not.” A glance at missions in the South Seas and the African Continent will yield telling illustrations of this. War, feasting, hilarity, and idleness were magic words with the average native early in the present century, but the first lesson of the missionary was an inspiration to better things. It is not too much to say that the industrial results of missions in the South Pacific may take rank as one of the most unique Commerce and Missions 19 social and economic- transformations that the world has ever witnessed. The whole current and trend of native ideals have been changed, and so it may be said that the African has learned the very alphabet of frugality, thrift, and settled industry from Chris- tian missions. The story of Lovedale in South Africa, where that magnificent institution of the United Free Church of Scotland, presided over so many years by Dr. James Stewart, is situated, is a veritable romance of missionary achievement. No one in the home churches can realize, and the mis- sionaries themselves hardly appreciate, the immense social changes in the direction of orderly and useful living, which have been inaugurated in hundreds of African communities. The warrior has been turned into the modern plowman, and his idle hands have been taught to use modern tools of precision. Plows which, in the dramatic language of a native admirer, are said to “do the work of ten wives,” have broken furrows of civilization in African society. One of the triumphs of missions in Africa may be said to be the conversion of the native “from the condition of a loafing savage to that of a laborer.” Industry, let it be noted, is not the natural bent of an African’s desire. His ideal is summed up in idleness, ques- tionable amusement, and war. It becomes, therefore, no common victory to turn him into an economic producer, and make him an honest toiler among his fellows. In ways both direct and indirect missions MAY BE SAID TO HAVE COMMENDED IN MANY FIELDS NEW STANDARDS OF COMMERCIAL INTEGRITY. They have wrought decisive changes in the ancient heathen conceptions of wealth, by attaching moral ideas of stewardship to riches. They have everywhere sought 20 Commerce and Missions to exemplify and accentuate simple, straightforward honesty as the best commercial policy. The mis- sionary the world over is, with hardly an exception, recognized and acknowledged to be absolutely trust- worthy, and this reputation for honesty has become identified in large measure with Christian converts. It has been made a study in some mission fields to commend Christianity by means of trade based on Christian principles. Among primitive races mis- sionaries have in some localities experimentally in- troduced an entirely new system of barter and trade. In India one of the lamentable features of the financial status of natives is an almost universal condition of debt, with a proneness to incur it. Every one seems to like to live on credit, and the result in time brings distress, and often disaster. The mission literature of India has dealt strenuously with this subject, ad- vocating the wiser method of avoiding debt and re- straining false pride, and thus relieving the people and their posterity from heavy burdens. In this sphere of business morals, and in the advocacy of strict integrity, missions have found an opportunity of ministering to the well-being of society, which they have not failed to improve. It may be asked, is there any clear evidence that missions have aided in the development of trade and commerce with the outer world? It is, of course, conceded that missions were not established for the purpose of promoting trade. No missionary is sent out as an emissary of commerce, or as the traveling agent or drummer of the merchant, nor is it fit or becoming that he should give his direct attention to this special line of service. It would be impossible for him to do so without doing injustice to the peculiar sacredness of his calling, and ignoring to his own Commerce and Missions 21 discredit the higher responsibilities of his office. Whatever missions may accomplish in this sphere must therefore be regarded as manifestly a matter of indirection. It is not claimed that this indirect service to commerce is a very conspicuous or as- sertive function of missions. It may be looked upon by some as rather negative, and at times hardly dis- coverable in its action, yet it can be traced, and a dis- cerning student can discover it. It has even been vouched for by some distinguished anthropological and economic students in Europe, who have advo- cated government support of missions among nature- peoples, in the interests of civilization and commerce. Among diplomats and government officials, moreover, there are signs of a hearty appreciation of the com- mercial benefits of missions. A British consul in China, in dealing with this matter, observed in his report: “How far the policy of opening mission stations in remote parts of the province may be pru- dent is an open question, but undoubtedly our com- mercial interests are advanced by the presence of mis- sionaries in districts never yet visited by merchants.” The late Charles Denby, for many years our Am- bassador to China, has expressed his conviction that the missionary has exerted a notable influence in promoting trade. We may not be able to trace the commercial fruitage of missions in the case of great Asiatic nations as distinctly as we have found it possible to do in connection with primitive races that have strug- gled out of barbarism under the tutelage and person- al supervision of the missionary, yet an underlying connection can surely be established, according to the testimony of those who have had the best opportunity for observation. It is difficult to gauge just that per- 22 Commerce and Missions centage of stimulus which has been given to the now awakened empire of China by the ministry of mis- sionaries, yet it is certain that much of the dissemina- tion of modern knowledge throughout the Far East has been due to missionary enterprise, and moreover, the services of Morrison, Gutzlaff, Bridgman, Parker, Williams, and Martin, in the negotiation of Chinese treaties, and their personal influence over men of affairs in China, have promoted the interests of com- merce, as well as those of international amity. The testimony of men who have lived or visited and journeyed in the East may be quoted in this con- nection. Sir Chentung Liang Cheng, a former Chinese Minister to the United States, writes that “the mis- sionaries have penetrated far into the heart of the country, and have invariably been the frontiersmen for trade and commerce.” The late Mr. Denby, who has been already quoted, has stated that the fact that “commerce follows the missionary has been in- dubitably proved in China;” The Honorable F. S. Stratton, formerly Collector of the Port of San Francisco, on his return from a journey of three months in China, Japan, and the Philippines, declared that, “commercially speaking, the missionaries are the advance agents for American commercial enterprises, and if business men only understood this matter, they would assist rather than discourage evangelistic work in the East.” During a visit of Bishop E. R. Hendrix to China, he met a wealthy English merchant in Shanghai, whose convictions on this subject were pro- nounced, and clearly expressed. The Bishop quotes him as saying; “We find that our very commerce in China is based upon the missionary. He precedes us into the interior, and becomes the means of our com- munications with the natives.” A correspondent of Commerce and Missions 33 the London Standard has written: “In almost every instance of new trade centres, new settlements and ports being opened in the Far East, the missionary pioneer has been the first student and interpreter, geologist, astronomer, historian, and schoolmaster, and his example and instruction have first aroused the de- sire for those commercial wares of ours which sub- sequently drew forth the traders.” In the initial at- tempts to build railways in China it was found com- paratively easy to do this if the route had been previ- ously occupied by mission stations, but that there was prompt trouble if the attempt was made where no missionary influence had been exerted. The Rev. W. A. Cornaby, for many years a resident missionary in China, is quoted as saying: “The opening of China was desirable first of all in the interests of the king- dom of God, and then in the interests of commerce; but the missionary must precede the trader, and com- merce must be on Christian lines.” These carefully formed opinions of men of intelligence and character might be multiplied, and they are full of significance, in view of the rapid and enormous extension of com- merce in the Far East during recent years. It will perhaps be a surprise to some that the port of Hong Kong holds the first place in the world for the magnitude of its shipping, and that the trade of Shanghai, another important port of entry, accord- ing to the statistics of 1907, was about equal to that of Boston, Massachusetts, the second port in the United States. The total of foreign trade imports and exports in China in 1903 was about $346,000,000, be- ing almost exactly double wlmt it was ten years be- fore that date, and it has increased since that time by over one hundred million dollars. Of this amount about fifty million dollars belonged to the United 24 Commerce and Missions States. The exports of the United States to Asiatic countries in 1903 were valued at $58,359,016, while in the year ending June 30, 1905, they represent the surprising advance to a valuation of $127,637,800 chiefly owing to the large increase in our exports to Japan. The figures for 1907-8 indicate that this rapid advance has not been sustained, and the amount now stands as $101,784,832. These are remarkable figures, but who can estimate what they will be now that China is about to inaugurate the telephone, and with modern facilities for transportation and com- munication is preparing to do business, in the spirit of modern enterprise, with the rest of the world? Even in the case of Japan, while the Japanese themselves may justly claim a maximum share of the credit of their national renaissance, and their phenom- enal commercial development, yet it should not be forgotten that the opening of Japan was a memor- able achievement of American diplomacy, and that candor requires that a certain meed of credit in this connection belongs to the guiding counsels, the sympa- thetic aid, and the educational impetus of missions. Japanese prospecting into the realms of Western civilization has been — at least in its early stages — largely under missionary inspiration and guidance, and a goodly number of her best men in State and Church alike are the products of missions; yet not much more than half a century ago international trade was virtually prohibited in Japan, and all contact with foreigners was under rigorous restrictions. The in- fluence of missions in their relation to the great changes which have come is not always on the surface, nor do we desire to make it unduly prominent; yet no wise economic interpretation of history can safely ignore the influence of such educational, moral, re- Commerce and Missions 25 ligious, and generally vivifying forces as are intro- duced by modern missions. These statements cer- tainly apply in a marked degree to the commercial progress of Korea. Trade returns there, as we have noted in so many instances, have increased in a kind of rhythmic accord with mission progress. From 1895 to 1903 Korean commerce in the open ports doubled itself, having expanded from a valuation of about six million dollars to a total of about fourteen million dollars, and in the trade reports of 1907 the total figures are about twenty-nine million dollars, and of this amount about twenty-one million dollars are imports. An increase of one thousand per cent, in the trade of India during the Victorian Era tells the story of modern commercial progress in the great peninsula — a truly wonderful exhibit of the potentialities of trade in Asia. In the Turkish Empire, under the stimulus of monumental changes and revolutionary progress, we have the promise of another commercial opening, which, according to competent observers, will be due in no slight measure to the work of American mis- sions. Consul-General Dickinson has stated his con-' viction that even the material returns of American mission work in Turkey have justified in large measure the outlay. “From every standpoint,” he re- marks, to quote his exact words, “I do not see how the American missions in Turkey, as they are at present conducted, can fail to be of distinct advan- tage to the commerce and influence of the United States.” In the Syrian Protestant College, at Beirut, a “School of Commerce” has been established as a department of the curriculum, with a view to train- ing educated young men for skilled service in a com- mercial career. Commercial education has also been 26 Commerce and Missions made part of the curriculum at St. John’s College, Agra, India, where shorthand, typewriting, book- keeping, and other accomplishments of practical value are taught. Other schools of the same character might be mentioned. Model stores also have been opened in some of the African missions, and among the Indians of South America, where trade is con- ducted in a way to exemplify strict business methods, as well as to inculcate the supreme virtue of honesty. Bishop Selwyn, as far back as 1857, during his visits to some of the Melanesian Islands, introduced the custom of buying yams by weight, to the delight of the natives, who were greatly impressed with the strict and impartial justice of the method. The Basel missionaries in Kamerun have made it a part of their service patiently to impress the native with the meaning and binding force of a contract, and to secure, if possible, his conscientious recognition of such a self-imposed obligation. Thus in various ways the ethics of commercial transactions are being taught. That a grave economic problem is involved in the rapid advance of foreign commerce among native races is not to be denied, and the resultant depression of native industries would seem to call for some kindly effort to adjust this economic problem so that possible disaster and suffering may be mitigated as far as possible. Any adjustment of this kind may cost much, and may even seem in some instances in- evitably to spell ruin to native arts and industries. The same difficulties have often had to be met in the annals of the industrial world, and it is to be hoped that in time these difficulties may be overcome, and society will adjust itself to a new industrial era. In the meantime, does not this depression, involving even in some cases the extinction of native indus- Commerce and Missions 27 tries by the inroads of foreign commerce, place a weighty obligation upon the philanthropic and humane agencies of the Christian world make some effort to provide a comprehensive and practical technical train- ing, to enable the native agencies to meet successfully the exigencies of this new and desperate trade situa- tion? An Indian missionary, in referring to the economic ascendancy of England in India, sug- gestively remarks : “This is a fine thing for English industry, but what does it mean for Indian industry? We cannot turn back the tide of the inevitable, but we can mix with that tide the healing streams of the Gospel, and our own human s)’mpathy. Let us build as we break. The Christian business man ought to feel that wherever he sends his goods and makes his profit, there he must with equal urgency send his Gospel. ]\Iy deepest conviction is that the only power which can help the people of India to build up a new social and industrial fabric out of the present ruin is the power of Jesus Christ creating in them a new self-respect, and new impulses in new directions. In the Gospel we hold that which we can give to other nations, which will make them great and glorious, without impoverishing ourselves. Let every Christian Englishman do his duty by the countries he trades with.” In a country like Japan the adjustment above re- ferred to may be accomplished with ease, and much more rapidly than, for example, in a land like China. It is already progressing in Japan at a pace which is altogether unexampled. “Twenty-two years ago,” wrote Dr. J. H. DeEorest in 1896, “when I first saw the great commercial centre of the empire, Osaka, where seven-tenths of all the wealth of Japan was said to be gathered, there were only two tall brick 28 Commerce and Missions chimneys visible — those of the Mint and of a paper mill. Now the city is surrounded by a dozen miles of brick and iron chimneys, with over three thousand factories. Everywhere manufactures, commercial companies, railroads, foreign commerce, banks, in- surance, have leaped forward with immense strides, especially since the war [with China] .” Railways are still projected by the score, a merchant marine of magnificent proportions is already launched, and modern facilities of all kinds are being readily and rapidly adopted. The industrial expansion of Japan is therefore phenomenal. The introduction of improved agricultural IMPLEMENTS IN VAST HITHERTO UNCULTIVATED RE- GIONS OF THE EARTH MAY BE TRACED DIRECTLY TO THE MISSIONARY, IN MANY INSTANCES. It was Dr. Moffat who taught the Kaffirs the value of irrigation, and it was the clumsy hoe which was the most effective in- strument of the African native, until the plow was thrust into the soil by an American missionary. Previous to that the burden of agricultural cultiva- tion rested largely upon the women. Huge oxen passed an almost useless existence so far as any agricultural or transport service was concerned. Since the introduction of plows there have been thousands — especially those of American manufacture — im- ported for use in South Africa. Not long ago the Rev. D. Z. Sheffield invented and perfected a Chinese typewriter, with a type-wheel providing four thousand available characters for use. Although the language contains over forty thousand distinct characters, yet for typewriting purposes it has been found that they may be reduced to about four thousand. In his hours of recreation and re- Commerce and Missions 29 lief from the duties of his missionary service Dr. Sheffield has quietly wrought out and adjusted to Chinese uses this invaluable invention of modem commerce. We may credit also Mr. F. D. Phinney, Superintendent of the Baptist Mission Press at Rangoon, with the construction of a Burmese type- writer. It was the Rev. John Williams who built the “Messenger of Peace,” a ship of about sixty tons burden, and taught the natives of Rarotonga the art of shipbuilding; and these same natives became there and elsewhere among the Pacific Islanders the builders of their own ships, of far larger dimensions than any previously constructed. Carey imported the first steam engine into India, for his paper mill. Dr. Sheldon Jackson was instrumental in introducing reindeer into Alaska, and Dr. Grenfell has similar plans for Labrador. The Rev. W. N. Brewster imported machinery for the extraction of the juice from sugar-cane in China, as he had observ^ed that the stone mills used in that great sugar growing region worked so imperfectly that twenty per cent, of the best juice was left in the cane, and burned up. “Hosts of chiefs and slaves are crowding my smithy,” wrote Mackay, of Uganda, in 1879. They were filled with wonder at the turning lathe, and various mechanical devices. The first electric plant in !Mid Africa was operated under the supervision of Dr. Laws, of the Livingstonia ^Mission. We can follow the historic footsteps of missions over distant continents into comparatively unknown regions, and find that, with hardly an exception, the pathway of commerce has been opened where the missionary has first trod. An outcome so universal can hardly be a mere coincidence. It suggests beyond cavil that Divine Providence has linked by deep un- 30 Commerce and Missions dercurrents of influence the material progress and the commercial expansion of the world with the ad-* vance of His beneficent kingdom among the races of mankind. Does not this study of the political and commercial value of missions emphasize the fact that missions, under proper auspices and with suitable methods, should be awarded a prominent place in the activities of the modern world? Is not this especi- ally true in connection with any wise and effective policy of national expansion which has its roots in Christendom? If expansion is on military lines alone, or is based upon exclusively political or economic de- signs, or is pushed with a view simply to commercial gains, it must eventually prove to be a short-sighted and defective p>olicy. It will lack the element which may fairly be regarded as essential to the highest conception and the most permanent value of the im- perialistic ideal. The words of the late Dr. James Stewart, in his address as Moderator of the Free Church of Scotland, seem fully justified. He re- marked: “The Christian Church is not aware of the magnitude of the change that is going on all over the world at the present time where missionary effort exists. It is exactly to-day as in the early days of Christianity. The statesmen of Rome, the thinkers and philosophers and busy men of those days, took almost no notice of the new power that had begun its work in the world. One or two of them wrote letters to the emperors about this new and singular sect of whom they had heard, but serious attention, save that of persecution, they never thought of be- stowing on the new movement ; and they little dreamt of what it would one day accomplish. j ■f %