Essay On Mercantilism

2799 Words6 Pages

David Yan
Mr. Jack Carter
University English II
6 April 2014

Thomas Mun’s Mercantilism Theory and Its Effects on the American Colonies
An unmistakable tension fills the air of a small Boston townhouse on a warm summer evening. In every town hall in the American colonies, there are loud grumblings over the recently passed Molasses Act and all its substituents, including the Sugar and Stamp Acts. These acts, descendants of the mercantilist “Navigation Acts” passed by British Parliament in the 1650’s, were put in place to help Britain recover from its devastating losses in the Seven Years’ War. These acts threatened to cripple the already-weak economy of the Colonies and negatively affect the exporting powers of the New England ports, since producers of molasses and rum would have to charge higher prices for products that already had a thin margin of profit and high competition. The colonists, realizing this threat, banded together as the slogan “No Taxation Without Representation” echoed throughout the colonies. The Molasses, Sugar, and Stamp Acts, products of Thomas Mun’s theory of mercantilism, acted as a final straw for the colonies that would signal the start of the American Revolution. More importantly, these acts signaled the beginning of the end of mercantilism, an economic mindset that dominated the economies of Europe’s largest nations for two centuries. Britain’s powerful mercantilist economic policy controlled every facet of British trade until it was ultimately abandoned when restrictive mercantilist trade laws led leaders of the American colonies to declare a need for fair representation, followed by the events of the American Revolution which led to the demise of mercantilism.
The theory of mercantilism follow...

... middle of paper ...

...up official trade relations between the American Colonies and Spain’s own colonies in Peru. France carried out similar economic policies, as Marie-Jeanne Rossignol would point out, “An edict issued in August 1784, which was intended to open up more trade opportunities for Americans in the French Caribbean.” Through this new edict, the French released their West Indian Ports from simply being a feeder of raw materials for France’s mainland to letting the colonies become an independent trading port. Even Britain joined in, as the aftermath of the North American colonies independence also forced the British to rethink its exclusive monopoly of colonial policy. Throughout the rest of Europe, similar edicts and trade relations were being opened. Soon after the American Revolution, European colonial mercantilism collapsed.
Mercantilism was shown to have its own

Show More
Related

  • Significan Mercantilism In The Columbian Exchange

    1540 Words  | 4 Pages

    Encomiendas: An encomienda was a grant of Native American labor given to prominent European men in the Americas by the Spanish king. This grant allowed European men to extract tribute from natives in the form of labor and goods. The value of the grants was dramatically increased with the discovery of gold and silver in the Americas. The significance of this term is that although this system was eventually repartitioned, it initiated the tradition of prominent men controlling vast resources and monopolizing native labor.

    Read More

  • A Review Of Th Breen's Marketplace Of Revolution

    1843 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the early eighteenth century consumer goods flooded American markets, the colonists needed to sell what they produced in order to purchase British goods that were beyond their ability to manufacture and therefore made them feel more a part of the British "empire of goods".

    Read More

  • The Colonies By 1763: A New Society?

    497 Words  | 1 Pages

    In a similar economic revolution, the colonies outgrew their mercantile relationship with the mother country and developed an expanding capitalist system of their own. In England, the common view was that the colonies only purpose was to compliment and support the homeland. This resulted in a series of laws and protocols called th...

    Read More

  • How Did The British Colonies Influence The American Colonies

    1336 Words  | 3 Pages

    The British Empire has had a long lasting and strong influence on the American colonies for over three centuries. From the 16th century all the way to the 18th century, the British empire has held power within the colonies in terms of legislature, economy, and social stature. The British’s rule has been both a positive and negative driving force

    Read More

  • American Revolution vs. Brazilian Revolution

    1052 Words  | 3 Pages

    In concern to the American Revolution, there are two sides debating its primary cause. One set of historians believe the cause to be ideals and principles. The other set of historians and scholars credit economic and social interests as the primary cause of the Revolutionary War. Historians Jesse Lemisch and Dirk Hoerder used the mobs in colonial cities as evidence of the social concerns of Americans at that time. Another Historian, Arthur M. Schlesinger argued in a 1917 study “that it was the colonial merchants who were chiefly responsible for arousing American resistance to the British; and that although they spoke of principles and ideals, their real motives were economic self-interest: freedom from the restrictive policies of British mercantilism.” This argument is very concrete and is supported by the different legislation that the British Parliament passed after the Seven Years’ War. In fact, an act was passed in 1764 by the Parliament that was instrumental in specifically angering the merchants that played a major role in leading the Americans to independence. That piece of legislation was the Sugar Act which placed a tax on sugar being brought into the colonies. This tax was a significantly less than the one that was logged in the book previously; however, that tax had been ignored for years. The initial response of the merchants to this piece of legislation was anger because this new law cut off their highly profitable smuggling organizations which greatly affected their earnings. Soon after tha...

    Read More

  • Primary Differences between Colonial America and England

    947 Words  | 2 Pages

    One facet of this unique system involved the numerous economic differences between England and the colonies. The English government subscribed to the economic theory of mercantilism, which demanded that the individual subordinate his economic activity to the interests of the state (Text, 49). In order to promote mercantilism in all her colonies, Great Britain passed the Navigation Acts in 1651, which controlled the output of British holdings by subsidizing. Under the Navigation Acts, each holding was assigned a product, and the Crown dictated the quantity to be produced. The West Indies, for example, were assigned sugar production and any other colony exporting sugar would face stiff penalties (Text, 50). This was done in order to ensure the economic prosperity of King Charles II, but it also served to restrict economic freedom. The geographical layout of the American colonies made mercantilism impractical there. The cit...

    Read More

  • British Rule In Britain During The 1700s

    567 Words  | 2 Pages

    “When on December 22, 1775, the British Parliament prohibited trade with the colonies, Congress responded in April of 1776 by opening colonial ports—this was a major step towards severing ties with Britain.” (history.state.gov) The colonies no longer depend solely on British goods, but had set up strong trading agreements with numerous countries. These agreements sustained the colonies. By setting up trade agreements with other countries, the colonies had, in a way, become “independent’ from the necessity for British goods. These British goods had become obsolete to the goods of rival

    Read More

  • The American Revolution, A Fight for Colonial Independence

    1040 Words  | 3 Pages

    As a result of the French and Indian War, England’s attention became focused on the areas that required tending by the government other than North America, which provided the colonies with the one thing that ensured the downfall of Britain’s monarchial reign over America: salutary neglect. The unmonitored inhabitants of the colonies accustomed themselves to a level of independence that they had never possessed before, and when these rights were jeopardized by the enforcement of the Stamp Act after the Seven Year’s War, the colonists would not take it lying down. The colonies bound together in rebellion against the taxation without representation through boycotting the use of English goods, as embodied by Benjamin Franklin’s famous drawing of a snake; the “Join or Die” snake, as a whole representing the functionality and “life” of the colonies if they would work together, also forewarns the uselessness and “death” of the individual regions, suggesting that the colonies as a whole would have to fight the revolution against the Mother Country or else fail miserably...

    Read More

  • Canadian Confederation

    3837 Words  | 8 Pages

    Trade was important to the Maritimes. Up to 1846 Britain had provided the British North American colonies with a market for their goods, but then began a policy of free trade. Because there were no tariffs placed on any country the colonies lost a sure market for their goods. Many colonists were concerned that some might consider union with the United States and the British North American colonies was brisk with large amounts of lumber and grain being imported by the U.S. When the Americans ended the Reciprocity Treaty in 1865, many Maritimers became uneasy about the economic future. It became apparent that in order to develop thriving trade; new economic links would have to be developed. 3

    Read More

  • The Market Revolution

    1044 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the late 1700’s, the United States was no longer a possession of Britain, instead it was a market for industrial goods and the world’s major source for tobacco, cotton, and other agricultural products. A labor revolution started to occur in the United States throughout the early 1800’s. There was a shift from an agricultural economy to an industrial market system. After the War of 1812, the domestic marketplace changed due to the strong pressure of social and economic forces. Major innovations in transportation allowed the movement of information, people, and merchandise. Textile mills and factories became an important base for jobs, especially for women. There was also widespread economic growth during this time period (Roark, 260). The market revolution brought about economic growth through new modes of transportation, an abundance of natural resources, factory production, and banking and legal practices.

    Read More

  • Comparing Japan Reformation

    956 Words  | 2 Pages

    Journal of the First Congress of the American Colonies, in Opposition to the Tyrannical Acts of the British Parliament. Held at New York, October 7, 1765 (New York, 1845), pp. 27-29.

    Read More

  • The Effect Of Salutary Neglect On Americans

    117 Words  | 1 Pages

    The overturn of Salutary Neglect altered Americans’ perceptions of Great Britain during the years: 1763 to 1775. The Salutary Neglect was a system without supervision in which the British crown did not know the government that was installed in its colonies, and also compliance with the commercial laws. Anyways, these colonies had to continue providing food and cash to the Great Britain´s crown. This policy was used to pay for mass warfare during the wars of France and India. Shortly afterwards, the British wanted to change their trade policy and put an end to illegal trade to strengthen their control by enforcing shipping laws and imposing new taxes, including the Stamp Act, which greatly upset American

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Mercantilism And Columbian Exchange

    169 Words  | 1 Pages

    Economic changes Mercantilism •Europeans grow wealthy at the expense of colonies/Native Americans and Africans •Columbian Exchange •Spread of plants, animals, ideas between Europe, Africa and Americas •Triangular trade •Facilitated mercantilism and Columbian Exchange •Global economy Soical changes Christianity blends with traditional Native American and African beliefs •Voudou in Haiti •Santeria in Cuba •Gods replaced by saints, but some old traditions remain (e.g. bloodletting) Soical changes Social classes in Americas based on race •Peninsulares, creoles, mestizos/mulattoes, Native Americans and Africans •Slave trade •Led to decreased population in Africa •Weakened remaining African civilizations and hurt the potential rise of new ones •Spread

    Read More

  • Mercantilism and Economic Control: A Case Study of Peru

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Chapter 7 of The Other Path¸ de Soto compares the state of Peru’s economy to the mercantilism that was rampant across Europe during the 15th to 19th centuries. Mercantilism was defined as the belief that the economic welfare of the State can only be secured by government regulation of a nationalist character. Mercantilism relied on the elite groups within a state, who were in turn sustained by state privileges. The essence of mercantilism was that it was an economic environment filled with governmental regulations. The state reserves the right to single out and promote whatever economic activities it considered desirable and to prohibit or discourage those which it considered inappropriate.

    Read More

  • Incentivizing Investment: Role of Government and Mercantilism

    2016 Words  | 5 Pages

    Individuals and firms must be given the right incentives in order for an investment to be attractive. The government has a significant role in creating these incentives, especially in developing countries. Firms’ willingness to invest is dependent upon the business environment – extent to which laws, regulations and infrastructure support business activities. Governments create certainty and transparency in international business, and also reduce risks through laws and regulations, enforceable property and land rights, proper infrastructure and functioning tax systems . In Bangladesh for example, the Department for International Development has helped streamline the business registration process from 35 days to a single day and the process

    Read More

More about Essay On Mercantilism

Open Document