Acts 16:19
And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers, And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers,
Acts 16:19 belongs to the advance of the gospel from Asia Minor into Europe, following the night vision at Troas on the borders of the Mediterranean Sea in which a man of Macedonia asked Paul to come over and help. The masters were the owners of an enslaved girl who had been used for fortune-telling by a spirit of divination, and her deliverance ended their hope and income from her divinations and soothsayings. After her deliverance the woman was left in her right mind and chose to follow Christ.
Seeing that their profit was gone, the masters seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the city rulers, magistrates and authorities. Beyond the immediate loss, they were alarmed that if the gospel work continued their trade and source of income would be entirely cut off, because they feared a power in the apostles' work that could stop their profits. That fear for gain was shared by many others in the city who profited by satanic delusions.
The charge brought against the apostles arose from threatened profit rather than concern for the city, taking the form that as Jews they troubled the city and taught customs unlawful for Romans to receive or observe. The mighty outcry they raised stirred a mob sanctioned by the authorities, who stripped and scourged Paul and Silas and cast them into the inner prison with their feet in stocks.