Mercantilism benefited the mother country while minimizing the progress of colonists; in particular, mercantilism favored manufacturers and ultimately the ruling government. The goal of mercantilism was not the overall well being of the general public but the financial status of the state. The Navigation Acts were a series of Acts passed in the English Parliament in the 1600s that were designed to regulate colonial trade and enabled England to collect taxes in the …show more content…
We had to get our resources through our mother country and our mother country only. Our mother country would be the reason we were well off, or the reason we were not doing so well. The main principles of mercantilism included the belief that the amount of wealth in the world was relatively constant, the need to encourage exports over imports as a means for obtaining a favorable balance of foreign trade that would produce these metals;the belief that a country's wealth could best be determined by the amount of precious metals possessed; the value of a large population as a key to self sufficient state power; and the belief that the state should exercise a dominant role in assisting and directing the national and international