Preview

The Goal Of Mercantilism In The United States

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
639 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Goal Of Mercantilism In The United States
Mercantilism Mercantilism is the economic theory that trade generates wealth and is stimulated by the accumulation of profitable balances, particularly in terms of precious metals, chiefly gold and silver. The more gold and silver a country had, the more powerful they would be. The main goal of mercantilism was to build up a nation's wealth as much as possible. Mercantilism benefited its mother country because the colonies supplied raw materials at a discounted price, the europeans would then make those raw materials into finished products and then sell those finished products back to the colonies for a higher price. Mother countries further controlled trade by only allowing their colony to trade with their mother country and by placing …show more content…
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

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    What was mercantilism? How could it have been a cause of war? Of economic growth?…

    • 301 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The promotion of the acquisition of wealth through plunder, colonization, and the protection of home industries and foreign markets during Europe’s rebirth was called mercantilism…

    • 1394 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Navigation acts- The Navigation Acts were a series of laws that restricted the use of foreign ships for trade between Britain and its colonies, all trade to and from their destinations were required to be carried by a British vessel. They began in 1651 and reflected the policy of mercantilism, which sought to keep all the benefits of trade inside the Empire, and to minimize the loss of gold and silver to foreigners and keep it in the local economy. The acts prohibited the colonies from trading directly with the Netherlands, Spain, France, and their colonies.…

    • 1050 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    APUSH Ch

    • 1064 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The English crown pursued mercantilist policies and stretched it to the America’s through the Navigation Acts. The colonies role in the British mercantilist system was to produce raw materials and goods. Then they would export it ONLY to England where it would be re-exported into finished products.…

    • 1064 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Even before the French and Indian Wars, Britain had passed two major laws known as Mercantilism and Navigation Acts. "Mercantilism was the theory of trade adopted by the major European powers from roughly 1500 to 1800" (Mercantilism, Us-History, Online). It advocated that a country should import more than it exported. "Trade laws ensured that manufactured exports to North America would have greater value than colonial primary products imported to Britain." (Krawczynski). This was a theory used to raise money for the mother country. "If one nation hoped to grow richer, it had to do so at the expense of some other nation" (Mercantilism, Us-History, Online). The concept of mercantilism affirmed that the sole purpose of the colonies was to provide for Britain and by this theory Americans were restricted economically.…

    • 2621 Words
    • 75 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Powhatan Dbq

    • 2763 Words
    • 12 Pages

    3. Mercantilism (163): Mercantilism was a national program that said that the total amount of the world’s gold and silver stayed the same and only…

    • 2763 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Unit 1, Free Response #1

    • 824 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Adding to political factors, economic aspects contributed as well to England and its advancing in the New World. One of these is the mercantilist policy; belief in the benefits of profitable trading. Consequently, the English created the Navigation Acts, forbidding trade on…

    • 824 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hot Seat Chapter 16

    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages

    1. The fundamental ideas associated with the mercantile theory were: that everything was to benefit the mother country, each nation was trying to achieve self-sufficiency, colonies and agriculture would improve economy and raw materials, and the country must benefit at the expense of others. For the most part, these ideas along with a few other minor pieces helped European nations to conquer much of the New and old world. Great Britain was the most successful with a vast overseas empire through North America, the West Indies, Africa and into India. They governed their colonies effectively and efficiently maximizing power and economic strength over the world. The least successful would probably be Portugal. They initially started out strong, finding trade routes along Africa into Asia and conquering Brazil, however by the 18th century their empire had diminished to slight control of Brazil and almost no other colonies.…

    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    History 1301

    • 1582 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Mercantilism = the government should regulate economic activity in order to promote national power. Trade should be controlled so that more gold and silver flowed into the country than left it.…

    • 1582 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This was done by mercantilism which encouraged agriculture and manufacturing in order develop the economy that would…

    • 160 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Battle at Bunker Hill

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Mercantilism was a way that the king made money on his colonies. The Navigation Acts were acts to enforce Mercantilism. The rules were that you can only buy from or sell to the king. The king controlled the prices and told the colonies what to make. Mercantilism and the navigation acts were the Main cause for the revolution.…

    • 462 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    While trade, commerce and economy collapsed during the Middle Ages, by the Age of Exploration to the eighteenth century, Europe shifted from its once widely accepted manorial system to mercantilism—an economic policy that permitted a nation to restrict the exchange and purchasing of goods between itself and its colonies alone. However, as European powers continued to expand and dominate the world economy, they enacted strict laws and regulations that controlled the economic affairs in their respective colonies—which encouraged the controversial act of smuggling, an act that was deemed necessary by many but was seen as an economic hindrance by others. An additional document, the actual number of goods that were smuggled, displayed preferably…

    • 1076 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Trans-Atlantic Trade

    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The role of trans-Atlantic trade and Great Britain’s mercantilist policies in the economic development of the British North American colonies in the period from 1650 to 1750 was to create the colonies into self-sufficient areas of living. Triangular trade within the United States, Great Britain, the West Indies, and Africa helped to distribute and/or import and export essential factors. The theory of mercantilism is “that a state should be as economically self-sufficient as possible” and it stipulates that in order to build economic strength, a nation must export more than it imports. The mercantilist policies of Great Britain were rules and regulations that every country and colony participating in the trans-Atlantic trade had to abide by. These rules helped build a firm ground for those countries and colonies, like the British North American colonies that were trying to become financially dependent on themselves.…

    • 431 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 1660 the original introduction of Navigation Acts was generally that to help promote mercantilism, essentially the acts “encouraged”…

    • 314 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Revolutionary War Causes

    • 1186 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Between 1650 and 1696, the British Parliament passed a series of Navigation Acts that limited colonial trade by using mercantilism.…

    • 1186 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays