Mercantilism
was an economic theory and practice, dominant in Europe from the 16th to the 18th
century, that promoted governmental regulation of a nation's economy for the
purpose of augmenting state power at the expense of rival national powers. It
was the economic counterpart of political absolutism or absolute monarchies.
Mercantilism
- Known as ‘age of exploration & discovery’
- Mercantilism proceeded with full speed in the 16th century as European made several voyages in search of wealth and spreading the gospel of Christianity
- Mercantilism heavily spread by export-import trade in Africa, Asia and North and South America
- Spatially long distance relation grown
- Arab merchants conducted several trade in Africa, India and rest part of Asia,. But there scale of operation was smaller
- European mercantilism demonstrated true international trade dimensions.
- Mercantilism then dominated by countries of Europe, Spain , Portugal etc.
- In the 17th century European traders carried east African ivory for the purpose of trading in India. They bought cotton cloths then exchange theses cloths with African slave used for mining gold in Central &South America. Part of the gold used to purchase spices and silks for far east.
Economic benefit from mercantilism
- Mercantilism contributed towards dynamic development of Europe’s
- It omitted the church dominated feudal structure
- Helps in the emergence of western Europe
- Extent of economic activity(buying, selling of land & labor) expanded
- Growth of cities accelerated
- Capital accumulation was done easily by the help of domestic economic activity.
