3 Review(s)

1542: Francis Xavier and his band of Jesuits arrived in Goa with the financial and moral backing of the Portuguese empire. 1759: a little over two hundred years later, the Jesuits returned home in disgrace, penniless and as unsung criminals. How did the scene change? How did the well-organized Society of Jesus collapse so helplessly to government orders. The present work has sought to trace the growth and collapse of the Jesuits of Goa during their stay in India. The emphasis is on the economic aspects, on the means they used to gather resources, the extent of them, and the use they put them to. The hunt for financial resources, although overseen with caution from their constitutional and spiritual writings, brought them into involvements and alliances with many, and made them the victims of the objections and hatred of other. The Economics of the Goa Jesuits, 1542-1759 it is hoped, will delineate adequately the lives and times of men suppressed world-wide between 1759-1773, and restored again in 1814.