Converting a Savage Mind: Commerce and Christianity
The view that civilization and Christianity took time to spread, but eventually became rooted within a culture, also reflected the ideology of free trade. Free trade indicated a mutual dependency between two countries built up over time as opposed to aggressive imperialism, which required active involvement from the British government and military (Porter, 4-6).
Like Christianity, the principles of free trade were meant to act to change the moral structure of a society. This meant, according to Porter, that "materialism was closely in line with philanthropy, God in harness with Mammon" (Porter, 6). In 1857, David Livingstone had called for the spread of "commerce and Christianity." He spoke of a two-fold objective and suggested that, by "guiding our missionary labors so as to benefit our own country, we shall thereby more effectually [sic] and permanently benefit the heathen" (Livingstone, 720.)
The government was clearly complicit with his agenda. When he returned from his first exploration, Parliament determined to fund his next expedition. From 1858-1864, Livingstone explored Africa at the expense of the British government. The Queen's instructions to Livingstone were clear: "'Her Majesty's Government attached more importance to the moral influence that might be exerted on the minds of the Natives...treating the people with kindness, and relieving their wants, teaching them to make experiments in agriculture...imparting to them religious instruction as far as they are capable of receiving it"'(Hansard (Lords), 6th July 1888). The British government voiced two agendas - both commerce and conversion. The link between church and state was officially recognized in African foreign policy.
However, a number of Englishmen mocked the link between humanitarianism and commerce early on, recognizing the preeminence of commerce. In South Africa, where both missionaries and colonists had settled in large numbers, Colonial official Andries Stockenstrom stipulated that the question was not about Christianity, conversion, or morality. He observed that although both groups professed to be Christians, nobody cared whether it was right to "'plunder, massacre, and exterminate the Irish Celt, the Red Indian, the Hottentot, the Kaffir, the Hindoo, the Burman, the Chinaman, and the Japanese, but the simple question is "will it pay"'"( David Chidester, Savage Systems: Colonialism and Comparative Religion in Southern Africa (Charlottesville, Va: University Press of Virginia, 1996), 96-97). Stockenstrom clearly believed that between Christianity and commerce, Christianity usually took second place. Its spiritual "truths" were lost when it was needed to pave the way for commerce.
Bernard Shaw, nineteenth century playwright, described the way traders used missionaries in his 1898 play "The Man of Destiny":
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