Mercantilism

A detailed Summary of Mercantilism


Mercantilism was a method of trade used by 16th, 17th, and 18th century Monarchies to increase exports and the amount of imports of precious metals coming in. In a country under mercantilist persuasion, a country would do all it could to bring in money. Treaties were made with countries so that one trading country would have exclusive trading privileges in another country. A country would control the production of items, (how much and how many) and then 'encouraged' these items be traded to other countries. With goal obviously being profit, these countries sought to sell more than they bought. The raw materials needed for products were mostly gotten from the inside instead of buying from outside. Frequently, manufacturing and production would go before practices such as farming or the like.

Countries that had colonies across oceans or in different places in the continent would by all means use these connections to their advantage and take ev


The idea behind Mercantilism was to control the production of goods by the government so long as it benefits the people. Did it benefit the people? For a while yes, but ultimately drove the people into the ground.

This however was also the downfall, since with the growth of wealth also came inflation. Inflation caused the price of everything from food, to beverages, housing, and raw materials to go up. The towns could no longer support such huge industries and the exporting, and therefore the system went belly up.

The fear of every mercantilist country was, as one index put it, "fear of goods" or fear of deficits in trade. As it is today, the fear was that one would pay out their profits of exporting to import what they need, therefor losing the wealth they so desperately wanted. They tried to get gold bullion wherever and however they could. Countries became wealthier, and spent money on things such as enlargement of cities, estates for officials, and

Some common words found in the essay are:
France Spain, Mercantilism Mercantilism, Communism Socialist, Americas Mercantile, countries sought, control production, raw materials, country country,

Approximate Word count = 654
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Politics

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