"Oekonomie-Berichte Indiens 1854-1868."

NB „Oekonomie" in the Schwabian version of German in the 19th century refers especially to the land around a house on which a family grew (some of) its food. With this background "Oekonomie" in the German of the Basel Mission refers to practical local support structures - questions, to farming, and to any craft- or industrial production process which may have been connected with the Mission. A fair translation of this volume’s title in English would be, therefore: Reports from those responsible for the "economy" of the Basel Mission in India in general, and of those responsible for the "economy" of the Mission in its three districts of Southern and Northern Karnataka and North Kerala, 1854 to 1868. The volume contains 158 separate documents which are listed in an index at the front. They have been bound in more or less in date order. There are no sub-sections defined by individual districts or mission stations. The index includes (for the first time in Series C-1) a caption giving a short indication of the document’s contents. Although the title indicates the the earliest documents date from 1854 in fact there are only 9 documents from the years 1854-1859 inclusive. There are, however, 33 documents from 1860, 16 from 1861. 4 from 1862, 43 from 1863, 15 from 1864, none from 1865 and 1866, 11 from 1867 and 20 from 1868. This volume does not have a fully clear function in relation to the main C-1 volumes from these years. Indeed, for 1867-8 it mainly seems to be a collecting point for items sent to Basel by G. Pfleiderer, who was the head of the Mission’s practical administration in those years. Nevertheless, looked at as a whole it contains a lot of material on land purchase, land administration (rents for people settled on mission land), building, and the training and activity of craftsmen. People working on individual places - Kodakal e.g. - would find it well worth while checking to see what local reports have found their way into this particular volume.

1854

1868

1854-1868

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