The Main Theoretical Weaknesses of Mercantilism

1. What is ‘imperialism’? How did 19th-century colonialism, empire building, high imperialism differ from those of earlier times: in particular from the colonialism of early- modern mercantilism (16th to18th centuries)?

The innovation of maritime technology has revolutionized travel throughout history. Prior to ships and sea travel, humans were separated by vast oceans and confined to their homeland for life. Because of these large boundaries, discoveries and inventions were only shared within land masses and trade as a whole was very limited. This uncharted, inaccessible territory caused a major separation of mankind. However, these oceans sparked curiosity and desire for explorers to venture beyond their native land. This curiosity was the driving force to the invention of naval travel, a highly important and massive step for all growing communities during the Age of Exploration. Maritime technology’s advancements through history greatly aided in the Age of Exploration, allowing provinces to break their land boundaries and make monumental steps towards the advanced world humans populate today.

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

So first off, let's talk about Mercantilism. What is bad about it you may ask? Well lets see from a coloniest point of view. So the mother country gets rich, as the colonies do not. The colonists must sell basically all of their raw materials to the mother country for whatever price the Mother country decides (a cheap price). They must buy manufactured goods from the Mother country (at a high prices) so do you see what I mean.

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

The colonists were not allowed to send products to other countries or had to pay large tariffs to send them there so that England profited

Economic factors played a huge role in the expansion of imperialism. Document 5 says, “But the economic side… must not be allowed to obscure the other factors. Psychologically speaking… evolutionary teachings was perhaps most crucial.” This means that the economy shouldn’t be allowed to hide other factors and that the evolutionary teachings of “survival of the fittest” was the most crucial. William Langer claims that it only causes competion. Every country is trying to compete in order to gain money. Document 1 explains how iron and cotton producers were able to sell their goods overseas to their colonies. Also bank

Due to Europe following the laws of mercantilism, the Americas were taken advantage of. Mercantilism is how the mother country takes in raw materials, and makes manufactured goods, and tries to keep all money with in the mother country. In Document 5 there is a picture of the triangle trade. In this triangle trade manufactured goods are brought to the Americas from Europe, and lumber oil and spices are brought back to Europe. Europe can easily take advantage of the Americas by buying their raw materials for a cheap price, then hire jobs in the mother country, and in the end the manufactured goods are sold at a very high price to the people in the Americas. Mercantilism is an economic procedure that includes keeping jobs, money, and supplies with in the mother country. Europe took advantage of the Americas by using the laws of mercantilism.

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 definition of Salutary Neglect is an unofficial and long term 17th and 18th-century British policy of avoiding strict enforcement of parliamentary laws meant to keep American colonies obedient to England. This British policy of Salutary Neglect was never documented although Britain was strict about it. Salutary Neglect often is associated with laws regarding trade. It was effected during mainly the Navigational Acts and the Triangular Trade.

Moreover, Imperialism required weapons to maintain the control. All European expedentures from 1908 to 1913 had a competition of nations, and lead to rival nations forming alliances to better be equipped for defense with better military. When more weapons were created it had caused tensions to rise. In 1911 France tried to take over Morocco, Britain feared that Kaiser wanted to set up a naval base in Agadir. Later on, a conference was held and the British and French pointed their fingers at Germany. France took control of Morocco and Germany. This lead directly to Militarism. Militarism had not only done that but, it also made it increasingly hard to upkeep with all the changes going on. Not surprisingly, it was a significant cause of World War one because Kaiser was humiliated and could have felt determined to fight Britain and France earlier as an act of Revenge. Also, it would require militarism to defeat

Mercantilism was meant to protect English companies by generating wealth and was stimulated by an accumulation of profit. The Navigation Acts were a byproduct of mercantilism in the British colonies. These acts restricted the use of foreign ships for trade between England and the colonies. They were enacted because the British wanted the full profit from their goods. Salutary neglect was the British policy of avoiding strict enforcement of Parliamentary Laws aiming to keep the colonies obedient to England. Salutary neglect lead to the growth of a colonial economy, and demands for local rule. Smuggling was the colonists’ reaction to the Navigation Acts. They ignored the restrictions, and continued to trade with the French, Dutch, and the Spanish West Indies. The colonial shippers bribed the British trade officials in order to continue their illegal

Furthermore, this experience led to the discovery that the key to success is control over regions that produced valuable goods, since control over trade routes ultimately leads to their change.1 China with its warfare and seafaring technology never claimed to take control over the sea even after Zheng He’s voyages, since they had enough, if not more resources than everyone else, unlike Europe. The conclusive thought is that Europeans were poor, and in order for them to succeed in an otherwise rich world, force was the only option. The bias is therefore in the fact that Europeans had no

International political economy is an important subdiscipline of international relation. It has three main ideologies, Liberalism, Mercantilism and Marxism. In this essay there will be three parts, first part is to demonstrate what the Liberalism and Mercantilism are on the perspective of international political economy and then the second part is to compare and contrast these two ideologies of political economy. At last, give a conclusion to the Liberalism and Mercantilism.

•The rise of capitalism and mercantilism as tools of empire building and financial basis for the rise of the bourgeois class