The Basel Mission and the Basel Mission Trading Company — conclusion

Conclusion of the chapter

The Basel Mission, founded in 1815 by Pietist citizens of Basel, became one of the largest Protestant missionary societies of the nineteenth century, with missions in the Gold Coast, southern India, China and Cameroon. It founded churches, schools and workshops, recorded languages and translated the Bible. In India, it founded industries, among them the tile factories of Mangalore, to employ converts. In 1859, its supporters founded the Basel Mission Trading Company, which conducted trade and industry in the mission fields according to Christian principles, refused to deal in spirits and firearms, trained African and Indian employees and supported the mission with its profits.

In the Gold Coast, the company became one of the principal trading firms and a major buyer and exporter of cocoa, whose cultivation, introduced with the participation of mission-trained Africans, made the colony the largest cocoa producer in the world. The seizure of the mission's property by the British during the First World War, on the grounds of its German staff, anticipated the ownership and control test of modern sanctions law. The company continued as the Basler Handelsgesellschaft and the Union Trading Company until the late twentieth century. The archives of the mission, preserved by Mission 21, allow a critical examination of this history, whose ambivalences Basel continues to discuss.

Conclusion of Part C

Part C has followed Basel from the middle of the seventeenth century to the middle of the nineteenth, the period in which the city was dominated by the silk ribbon industry and the patrician families of the Daig. The ribbon industry, organised by merchant-manufacturers through the putting-out system, employed thousands of rural weavers, required large amounts of working capital financed by bills of exchange, and prepared, through its need for dyes, the chemical industry that would succeed it. The families of the Daig, connected by marriage and kinship over centuries, managed their wealth collectively, dominated public office, combated corruption by the drawing of lots, and cultivated a culture of discretion that became the social foundation of Swiss private banking. The merchant houses of Basel became banks: they invested Basel capital abroad and suffered losses in the crises of the eighteenth century, developed the commission and forwarding business, discounted bills, issued banknotes, founded a stock exchange and, in 1854, formed the consortium that would become the Basler Bankverein.

Part C has also examined the darker and more ambivalent sides of Basel's commercial history. Basel merchants traded in colonial goods produced by enslaved labour, and some of them participated in the financing of slave-trading expeditions. The questions this history raises are the questions of modern due diligence legislation. The Basel Mission and its trading company engaged with Africa and India in a spirit of Christian commerce, contributed to the cocoa economy of the Gold Coast and to education and industry in southern India, and left a legacy of ambivalence that the city continues to examine. Part D turns to the transformation of Basel in the industrial age: the division of the canton, the railways, the chemical industry, the banks, the insurers and the Bank for International Settlements.

In five sentences

1.The silk ribbon industry, organised by Basel merchant-manufacturers who put out weaving to thousands of rural households, was the leading industry of the city for two centuries, financed its working capital through bills of exchange and prepared, through its need for dyes, the chemical industry of Basel.

2.The patrician families of the Daig, connected by marriage over centuries, managed their wealth collectively, served in public office, introduced the drawing of lots against corruption in 1718, and cultivated a culture of discretion that became the social foundation of Swiss private banking.

3.The merchant houses of Basel became banks by specialising in bills of exchange, deposits, loans, securities and wealth management, organised as partnerships with unlimited liability. In 1854 six of them formed the consortium that became the Basler Bankverein, one of the roots of UBS.

4.Basel merchants traded in colonial goods produced by enslaved labour, and the firm Christoph Burckhardt & Cie participated in slave-trading expeditions from Nantes, a history whose questions of responsibility are those of modern supply chain and due diligence law.

5.The Basel Mission, founded in 1815, and its trading company, founded in 1859, combined religious work with trade and industry in the Gold Coast and southern India, contributed to the cocoa economy of Ghana, and saw their property seized in the First World War on grounds that anticipate the ownership and control test of modern sanctions law.

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of August 2025.