caa a22 4500 386343845 CHVBK 20180307111804.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e198907 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S0021853700024105 doi S0021853700024105 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S0021853700024105 Beck Roger B. Eastern Illinois University Bibles and Beads: Missionaries as Traders in Southern Africa in the Early Nineteenth Century [Elektronische Daten] [Roger B. Beck] Trade across the Cape frontier in the first three decades of the nineteenth century, and government attempts to regulate that trade, cannot be understood without first considering the role of Protestant missionaries as traders and bearers of European manufactured goods in the South African interior. From their arrival in 1799, missionaries of the London Missionary Society carried on a daily trade beyond the northern and eastern boundaries of the Cape Colony that was forbidden by law to the colonists. When missionaries of the Methodist Missionary Society arrived in the mid-1810s they too carried beads as well as Bibles to their mission stations outside the colony. Most missionaries were initially troubled by having to mix commercial activities with their religious duties. They were forced, however, to rely on trade in order to support themselves and their families because of the meagre material and monetary assistance they received from their societies. They introduced European goods among African societies beyond the Cape frontiers earlier and in greater quantities than any other enterprise until the commencement of the Fort Willshire fairs in 1824. Most importantly, they helped to bring about a transition from trade in beads, buttons and other traditional exchange items to a desire among many of the peoples with whom they came into contact for blankets, European clothing and metal tools and utensils, thus creating a growing dependency on European material goods that would eventually bring about a total transformation of these African societies. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989 The Journal of African History Cambridge University Press 30/2(1989-07), 211-225 0021-8537 30:2<211 1989 30 AFH https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021853700024105 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021853700024105 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Beck Roger B. Eastern Illinois University NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- The Journal of African History Cambridge University Press 30/2(1989-07), 211-225 0021-8537 30:2<211 1989 30 AFH CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge