Profit Due to Christian Behaviour: The Moral Economy of the Moravian Church in the Eighteenth Century

The section refutes the prevailing view in research that Christian norms no longer had any significance in eighteenth-century trade practices. To this end, the section analyses the moral economy of the Moravian Church, a Pietistic denomination that spread rapidly throughout the Protestant part of the Atlantic World in the eighteenth century. The Moravians considered trade to be a beneficial service to their fellow man, so all trading activities had to be in accordance with Christian norms. Both central and local governing bodies took special care to ensure that individual Moravians did not seek excessive profits but charged fair prices for their goods and services. It was the goal of the governing bodies to ensure that no Moravian jeopardised his (or her) salvation or that Jesus Christ turned away from the Moravian Church. In the commercial practice of the late eighteenth century, the moral economy often proved to be a competitive advantage for Moravians. In particular, people who lived in the vicinity of the Moravian settlements considered the merchants and craftsmen working there to be especially trustworthy and preferred to buy from them.