The impact of the mission was at once symbolic and material. Its faith in the moral worth of commerce ensured that evangelists would foster the production and sale of agricultural sur- pluses. They also nurtured a desire for "civilized" goods. Yet, while the nonconformists cher- ished the ideal of a rural Christian peasantry, they actually prepared the Tswana for wage labor. For they instilled in them "wants" that could only be satisfied through entry into the colonial economy, and made them thoroughly familiar with the signs and values of the industrial work- place. In the early years of the "mineral revolution," in fact, many southern Tswana men (es- pecially Batlhaping) spontaneously sought employment at the diamondfields (Shillington 1982;Holub 1881(1):294). The mission had begun to convert them into colonial subjects.