Adam Smith
Rating Newest Oldest. Best Answer: In the mercantilist system colonies were expected to help the mother country achieve a favorable balance of trade, favorable specie inflow, economic self-sufficiency and an export surplus.  The Colonial Economy: Mercantilism. Beginning around 1650, the British government pursued a policy of mercantilism in international trade. Mercantilism stipulates that in order to build economic strength, a nation must export more than it imports. To achieve this favorable balance of trade, the English passed regulatory laws exclusively benefiting the British economy. Mercantilism. Mercantilism was the theory of trade espoused by the major European powers from roughly 1500 to 1800. It advocated that a nation should export more than it imported and accumulate bullion (especially gold) to make up the difference. The exportation of finished goods was favored over extractive industries like farming. Money (bullion) was needed to support ever-expanding armies and navies. Mercantilist concepts developed from this need. Underlying this theory was the belief that wealth was finite. If one nation hoped to grow richer, it had to do so at the expense of some other nation. MERCANTILISM. MERCANTILISM. Mercantilism was an economic system that developed in Europe during the period of the new monarchies (c. 1500) and culminated with the rise of the absolutist states (c. 1600 – 1700). Mercantilism was not characterized by the blind adherence to a single, precisely defined economic theorem.  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. Mercantilism encouraged the many intra-European wars of the period and arguably fueled European expansion and imperialism —both in Europe and throughout the rest of the world—until the 19th century or early 20th century. M ercantilism is economic nationalism for the purpose of building a wealthy and powerful state. Adam Smith coined the term mercantile system to describe the system of political economy that sought to enrich the country by restraining imports and encouraging exports. Modern mercantilist practices arise from the same source as the mercantilist policies in the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. Groups with political power use that power to secure government intervention to protect their interests, while claiming to seek benefits for the nation as a whole. Mercantilism is economic nationalism for the purpose of building a wealthy and powerful state. Adam Smith coined the term “mercantile system” to describe the system of political economy that sought to enrich the country by restraining imports and encouraging exports. Adam Smith refuted the idea that the wealth of a nation is measured by the size of the treasury in his famous treatise The Wealth of Nations, a book considered to be the foundation of modern economic theory. Smith made a number of important criticisms of mercantilist doctrine. M ercantilism is economic nationalism for the purpose of building a wealthy and powerful state. Adam Smith coined the term “mercantile system” to describe the system of political economy that sought to enrich the country by restraining imports and encouraging exports. Adam Smith refuted the idea that the wealth of a nation is measured by the size of the treasury in his famous treatise The Wealth of Nations, a book considered to be the foundation of modern economic theory. Smith made a number of important criticisms of mercantilist doctrine. While the mercantilist policies were designed to benefit the government and the commercial class, the doctrines of laissez-faire, or free markets, which originated with Smith, interpreted economic welfare in a far wider sense of encompassing the entire population. Adam Smith refuted the idea that the wealth of a nation is measured by the size of the treasury in his famous treatise The Wealth of Nations, a book considered to be the foundation of modern economic theory. Smith made a number of important criticisms of mercantilist doctrine. Boiled to its essence mercantilism is “bullionism”: the idea that the only true measure of a country’s wealth and success was the amount of gold that it had. If one country had more gold than another, it was necessarily better off. This idea had important consequences for economic policy. Mercantilism is thought to have begun its intellectual eclipse with the publication of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations in 1776. A simple interpretation of the economic history suggests that Smith’s ruthless advocacy for free markets was squarely opposed to regulation-heavy mercantilist doctrine.
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090122122102AA0FC5V http://www.sparknotes.com/testprep/books/sat2/history/chapter5section4.rhtml http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h622.html http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/mercantilism.aspx https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercantilism http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc1/Mercantilism.html http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Mercantilism.html http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Mercantilism.html http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Mercantilism.html http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2013/08/economic-history
who benefited from the mercantilist system