if it was capitalism, why was it then and now called mercantilism?brewster wrote:If there's been a capitalism without somebody's thumb on the scale I haven't heard about it. It was capitalism as much as the crony capitalism and too-big-to-fail crap we have now. It always depends on who's got the power to write and enforce the rules. And the North American colonialism sure was trade based capitalism compared to the pure pillaging in Latin America by the Spanish. If you happened to be a slave, of course, it'll all looked like a horror.Okeefenokee wrote: dude, you are fucking nuts if you think 18th century colonialism was capitalism.
What would Jeff have done with an agrarian society trading with a industrializing one? He needed all those manufactured goods but didn't want to make them.
Mercantilism was a type of national economic policy designed to maximize the trade of a nation and especially to maximize the accumulation of gold and silver. It was dominant in modernized parts of Europe from the 16th to the 18th centuries.[1] It promoted governmental regulation of a nation's economy for the purpose of augmenting state power at the expense of rival national powers. With the establishment of overseas colonies by northern European powers early in the 17th century, mercantile theory gained a new and wider significance, in which its aim and ideal became both national and imperialistic.[2][need quotation to verify] Mercantilism functioned as the economic counterpart of the older version of political power: divine right of kings and absolute monarchy.[3] Mercantilism includes a national economic policy aimed at accumulating monetary reserves through a positive balance-of-trade, especially of finished goods. Historically, such policies frequently led to war and also motivated colonial expansion. Indeed, with the establishment of overseas colonies by northern European powers early in the 17th century, mercantile theory gained a new and wider significance, in which its aim and ideal became both national and imperialistic.[4] Mercantilist theory varies in sophistication from one writer to another and has evolved over time. High tariffs, especially on manufactured goods, are an almost universal feature of mercantilist policy. Other policies have included:
forbidding colonies to trade with other nations
monopolizing markets with staple ports
banning the export of gold and silver, even for payments
forbidding trade to be carried in foreign ships, as per, for example, the Navigation Acts
subsidies on exports
promoting manufacturing and industry through research or direct subsidies
limiting wages
maximizing the use of domestic resources
restricting domestic consumption through non-tariff barriers to trade
Mercantilism in its simplest form is bullionism, yet mercantilist writers have emphasized the circulation of money and reject hoarding. Their emphasis on monetary metals accords with current ideas regarding the money supply, such as the stimulative effect of a growing money supply. Fiat money and floating exchange rates have since been rendered specie concerns irrelevant. In time, the heavy emphasis on money was supplanted by industrial policy, accompanied by a shift in focus from the capacity to carry on wars to promoting general prosperity. Mature neomercantilist theory recommends selective high tariffs for "infant" industries or the promotion of the mutual growth of countries through national industrial specialization.[citation needed]
The term "mercantile system" was used by its foremost critic, Adam Smith,[5] but Mirabeau (1715-1789) had used "mercantilism" earlier.
Many nations applied the theory, notably France, which was the most important state economically in Europe at the time. King Louis XIV followed the guidance of Jean Baptiste Colbert, his controller general of finances (1665–1683). It was determined[by whom?] that the state should rule in the economic realm as it did in the diplomatic, and that the interests of the state as identified by the king were superior to those of merchants and of everyone else. The goal of mercantilist economic policies was to build up the state, especially in an age of incessant warfare, and the state should look for ways to strengthen the economy and to weaken foreign adversaries.[6]
But muh Capitalisum!!!!