Cosmopolitan Networks in Commerce and Society 1660–1914

Religion and Trade
state of affairs, the secretary of the Christentumsgesellschaft wrote in
1806: ‘Altona is one of our most important places of dispatch for the
select committee. Mr Jacob Gisbert van der Smissen still takes an intimate
part in the affairs of our society. He dispatches our periodical,
maintains a very amiable correspondence, sends his not insignificant
annual contribution, is ready to do anything and dispatches all our
correspondence and mail to England bearing all expenses himself.’ 85
In fact, most of the transactions between the British and Foreign
Bible Society and the German Bible societies, between the Religious
Tract Society and various distribution centres such as Nuremberg or
Basel, went via Altona, especially between 1806 and 1814 when communication
was hampered by the Napoleonic Wars. In the end Jacob
Gysbert van der Smissen acquired an outstanding reputation not
only in the network of the Christentumsgesellschaft, but also in Brit -
ain as a whole. In 1814 he was honoured by the Religious Tract
Society, which made him ‘Honorary Governor for Life’ for ‘very es -
sential services’. 86 Further research, especially on the relationship
between Kießling and van der Smissen, will show more clearly that
the religious network used an economic network in this case. The
Anglo-German evangelical network almost replaced the former Men -
nonite one, but not lastingly. In the course of the nineteenth century
most members of the van der Smissen family returned to Mennonism
in a stricter sense.
The core business of the van der Smissen cousins was less successful
in weathering the Napoleonic era. In 1805 they still owned
seven ships; in 1806 they had to sell one which had been seized at
Fried rich stadt; and in 1807 Britain confiscated another four, which
were never returned. In addition, British government regulations
against Danish merchants in 1807 resulted in a loss of more than
100,000 marks. The losses of the years 1808 to 1814 amounted to
18 Feb. 1804, and Jacob Gysbert van der Smissen to Christian Gottlieb Blum -
hardt, Altona, 6 July 1805, ibid. 484–5, 501.
85 ‘Kurze Darstellung des Zustandes der Deutschen Christenthums-Ge sell -
schaft’, Basel, 31 Mar. 1806, ibid. 509–10.
86 Winfried Eisenblätter, ‘Carl Friedrich Adolph Steinkopf (1773–1859): Vom
englischen Einfluß auf kontinentales Christentum zur Zeit der Erweckungs -
bewegung’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of Zurich, 1974), 99–100, 176; William F.
Mundt, Sinners Directed to the Saviour: The Religious Tract Society Movement in
Germany (1811–1848) (Zoetermeer, 1996), 17, 58.
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