Rethinking Mercantalism Essay

Mercantilism is an economic theory where a nation's strength comes from building up gold supplies and expanding its trade. Britain formed the American colonies so that they could increase their gold stores. They wanted raw supplies to make into products to sell and make money. They wanted America to pay taxes so that Britain could make money. America used the theory in that they thought they ought to, in order to be strong expand their trade beyond Britain. Countries like Belgium, and France wanted to also increase their trade, and expand it to trading with America. They also wanted to increase their gold stores by trading with America. Britain however did not want America to trade with France and Belgium and the Netherlands because they

Published in 2016, this secondary source was written using a variety of references by Thomas Brinkerhoff, a Ph.D. student studying Colonial Latin America and Global Empires and Imperial Legacies at the esteemed University of Pennsylvania. Brinkerhoff’s academic credibility

In 1607 the British began to colonize North America. Britain enforce certain rules, such as the colonies could only trade with its mother country, to make sure that it was the only country benefiting for the colonies. However there was a period of Salutary Neglect. “Salutary neglect was Britain's unofficial policy to relax the enforcement of strict regulations, particularly trade laws, imposed on the American colonies late in the seventeenth and early in the eighteenth centuries” (Henretta). In this duration of time the colonies began to establish their own trade routes, politics, and procedures which helped form their sense of nationalism.

One huge figure that driven to the colonists’ discontent is Mercantilism. Mercantilism was the thought that colonies were an vital source of crude materials. A parcel of the crude materials were taken from America and sent to Britain to offer assistance the mother nation fabricate products to exchange with other nations. It was thought that by expanding trades and collecting valuable metals in return, that it would progress the national riches and control.

within a year. Fear of more violence led the British to establish a western limit

The English colonies in North America were slowly separating themselves from the crown. It starts with radical kings in Europe who cause so much disruption that a civil war occurs. The colonies worked together to fend for themselves and survived quite well without the crown and Parliament watching over them. England was not aware of it but every little thing they did to try reasserting command over the colonies only pushed them farther away. If England had always kept a firm hand on the colonies, we would be speaking proper English and marveling at our queen in the twenty-first century.

Since the early days of the United States, the Founding Fathers and other brilliant minds sought ways to understand and make sense of the inner workings of society and the economic market. Out of the many thinkers and developers of that time period, perhaps none made so great an impact on American society as the Scottish contemporary philosopher and political economist, Adam Smith—who is most known for his influential work, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, By the early nineteenth century, other streams of economic theory emerged from various individuals who were also influenced by the ideas of Smith. Some of these individuals included David Ricardo, Karl Marx and later John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman—each of whom contributed their own ideas on economic activity. However, it was Smith’s ideas on capitalism and his laissez-faire approach to free markets that have transcended other economic theories and continue to impact American economic thought to this day.

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The year 1607 brought England into the "New World" with its first permanent settlement at Jamestown, and the following years would bring more American colonies to the British Empire. When sending people into the new land, the English planned to use a mercantilist policy and fully use the colonies for their resources. The colonist's creation of the proverb "Mother countries exist for the benefit of their colonies" is sufficient because England's original intentions of mercantilism soon disappeared after their entrance into this new world. The reason for the decline in their motives can be traced to many occurrences, most notably benign neglect of the colonies and internal English conflicts. In many cases, the mother

Mercantilism Mercantilism is the economic theory that a nation's prosperity depends on its supply of gold and silver; that the total volume of trade is unchangeable. This theory suggests that the government should play an active role in the economy by encouraging exports and discouraging imports, especially through the use of tariffs. Spain and England used the mercantile system to benefit the mother countries. The mercantile system had special regulations, which usually extracted some sort of reaction from the colonies. If necessary, the policies would be changed to better suit the mother country.

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

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