Mercantile Policies During The 17th And 18th Centuries

Mercantilist ideas emphasized that nations should strive toward economic self-sufficiency and that the power of a nation should be measured by the amount of its gold and silver reserves. Ultimately, a nation should arrange to produce everything it needed for its own citizens and sell surpluses to for hard currency. This metal reserve, in turn, could be used in emergency situations to pay for wars or solve shortages. Colonies, like those England had in North America, played an important part in this economic equation. They could help England become self-sufficient by producing things that could not be made or grown there such as tobacco, sugar, and tall masts for ships. Colonists could also provide a market for British goods, particularly manufactured products, such as woolen cloth or beaver hats. This meant that the home economy in England could become more fully developed, while the colonial economies were relegated to a role of supplying raw materials.

Prior to unfolding of the events in the 18th century the interlinkages of increasingly global world, stirred agrarian and rural society's. In particular, the families had begun to produce surplus and buying new commodities, which were hitherto, considered luxuries. This era of industrious revolution laid the foundation for the industrial revolution. The trade in this time to Europe was mainly spices from India, silk and porcelain from China and inspite of silver flowing in from Americas kept the balance in favour of the East. The capital and labour requirements were not intensive and the mercantile activities were primarily housed in the guilds. This essay attempts to understand how the industrial revolution impacted the commerce

The British had the idea of mercantilism where a the economys wealth was judged by how much gold and silver it had, the colonies supplied the mother land with materials and then the mother country produced products to sell back to the colonies

Mercantilism operated in the colonies. Mercantilism is the belief that the colonies existed to gain wealth for the mother country. England regulated trade by forbidding the colonies to trade with each other or other European countries. England took control over major port cities along the east coast and as a result, they were able to reduce the number of ships that traveled to other colonies and countries for trade. Because of this, the colonies saw a decrease in exported goods due to the British blockages. Also, England’s naval force was so powerful that other nations became intimidated by them and they stopped exporting goods to the colonies. As a result, inexpensive imports because rare and very expensive. The main purpose of this strategy was to benefit the British economy. Between 1651and 1673, the Parliament established four Navigation Acts and they were meant to ensure proper mercantilism trade balance. These acts established that only English ships could carry cargo to colonial ports, goods such as tobacco and rice could only be shipped to England and Scotland, the Parliament would pay bounties to colonists who made certain goods and raising the price of those goods in other nations, and colonists could not compete with English manufacturers. This was also an unsuccessful strategy because colonists disagreed and they went ahead and secretly began

The mercantilism policy gave more money and more power to Britain. Parliament enacted four types of mercantilist regulations. The first aimed at ending Dutch dominance

Mercantilism is the focus of draining other countries for its resources and exporting more than you import while gaining as much wealth that is possible by taking the assets from their colonies. So Great Britain believed the more money they had the more power they could achieve. Great Britain used the ideology of mercantilism on the colonies and they were used to export raw materials, such as wood, crops, and furs. Great Britain were able to make goods out of the raw materials that the colonies had exported, once Great Britain was done making the finished goods they would sell it back to the colonies and other countries. Many merchants from Europe gained charters which is a license to do business in the American colonies, this caused an enormous growth in population and merchants became very wealthy. The effect mercantilism had on the natives was not good, because many of the remaining natives became slaves. However the Indians kept dying from the diseases that Europeans brought over, which they were not immune to, and they also would escape because they knew the land very well, so the Europeans needed a new labor group to gather the raw materials and harvest crops for them. The work force the British were looking for had to be cheap, because the merchants wanted to make as much as money as possible, this led to the growth of the African slave

Mercantilism is the belief that a country must export more good than it imports to build its economy. In the case of Britain and the New World colonies, the colonies had to send raw materials directly to England where they would turn those raw goods into manufactured goods and sell them back to the colonists. The Navigation Acts, passed by British parliament, enforced this idea by prohibiting the colonists from trading with anyone other than England such as the Dutch as well as the law that all goods had to be carried on English or colonial ships. However, the king developed a policy of salutary neglect towards the colonies and does not strongly enforce these acts because he wanted their loyalty to be to him rather than the French and therefore

Another way the British promoted their economy through mercantilism was to manage the most profitable trade goods. Laws about enumerated

2. Mercantilism, the foundation of the English economy, contributed to increase the profitability of colonies and power of the English government to supervise them. Colonial commence would allow for England to export manufactured goods and import a source for raw materials it could not produce at home. England excluded foreigners from its colonial trade in order to monopolize trade relations with its colonies. Therefore, English government designed to regulate colonial commence more

My intentions on this paper is explain mercantilism and how it was a major factor and or the cause of the American Revolution. The definition given by Merriam-Webster of mercantilism: an economic system developing during the decay of feudalism to unify and increase the power and especially the monetary wealth of a nation by a strict governmental regulation of the entire national economy usually through policies designed to secure an accumulation of bullion, a favorable balance of trade, the development of agriculture and manufactures, and the establishment of foreign trading monopolies. Now knowing a little bit of what mercantilism is let me further explain how it helped cause the American Revolution. Raw materials were taken from the colonies

This strengthend the empire because countries relied on the empire. For example, India had the fine cotton but they still had to buy cotton goods from Britain because it did not have the technology and manufacturing skills. Once money was gained by exporting goods, merchants or factories owernes could buy more raw materials from the colonies and this cycle repeated itself over and over again.

Mercantilism can be defined as a theory created British authorities that was an economic system that ensured their control that they had over the colonies. As the statement by a Historian says, “Mercantilism” was actually more favorable to the colonies than to Great Britain”, I would have to disagree. Although it is true that there was benefits for the colonies, the benefits of the mercantile system for Great Britain outweighed the little positive effects that it had on the colonies. The British benefitted greatly from the income that was gained by enforcing this system on the colonies and the effects that were to come after it was created. This essay will expand on the characteristic of mercantilism and how Great Britain was affected positively by the system.

. At the expense of the English colonies, the employment of mercantilist policies permitted the British Empire to prosper in wealth and power.

The development of long-range armed ships advanced Europe’s ability to control the oceanic trade routes. Even though “the revolution in military technology ….had implications for the organization and capital costs of warfare” (Tracy, 1991), the profits and benefits from this expansion were vast. They were able to procure gold, silver, and spices. Being able to access the Newfoundland fisheries brought about an abundance of food and oils. Employment to facilitate bulk trade helped to boost the economy. Ship building stimulated the economy and brought about the need for craftsmen, dealers, and suppliers, as well as insurers. Gold and silver were used to purchase spices and silks and timber was used to purchase iron guns from England. These economic advances coupled with technological advances interacted to drive the rise of Western Europe.

In the middle of the 18th century a strong reaction against mercantilist attitudes began. In France, the economists demanded liberty of production and trade. In England, Adam Smith