ABSTRACT
Gallic merchants, spurred by a desire for profit, and Catholic missionaries, stirred by a sense of piety, joined forces, and in 1664 they organized both the French East India Company and the Society of Foreign Missions. After obtaining possession of the area around Saigon, the French pressed ahead with their quest for empire on the Indochina peninsula. The imperial rule imposed by the French sowed the seeds of peasant discontent deep in Vietnamese soil. Along with their allies in the business community, prominent politicians such as Ferry convinced the government in Paris to make a concerted effort to consolidate French control of Indochina. Having won the heated controversy over the colonial question, the French imperialists realized the need to rationalize their Indochina empire. Jointly owned by finance capitalists in Paris and the French government, the Bank of Indochina became the key institution where businessmen and statesmen worked hand in hand, arranging colonial affairs for the economic benefit of metropolitan France.
