World History · Semester B TEKS 16D-16E
Medium
The MERCANTILIST economic policies of 17th and 18th century European powers were characterized by:
APrimarily economic in origin, with the cultural, political, or religious framing being a much later interpretive overlay imposed by 19th- and 20th-century historians on a mostly commercial phenomenon.
BGovernment intervention to promote domestic manufacturing and exports, restrict imports (tariffs), accumulate precious metals through favorable trade balances, and use chartered monopoly companies.
CChronologically misplaced in most popular accounts, occurring substantially earlier or later than commonly claimed, and involving different actors from those usually named.
DBest treated as an artifact of 19th-century nationalist historiography rather than as a distinctive historical development, with most substantive claims about it lacking primary-source support.
Explanation
Mercantilism — the dominant economic policy framework of 17th and 18th century European powers — was characterized by government intervention to promote domestic manufacturing and exports, restrict imports (tariffs, quotas), accumulate precious metals through favorable trade balances (net exports of value), and use chartered monopoly companies (like the Dutch East India Company chartered 1602, English East India Company chartered 1600, French Compagnie des Indes) to conduct international trade under state protection. Adam Smith's 'Wealth of Nations' (1776) provided the foundational critique of mercantilism from a classical-liberal perspective — arguing that free trade produced greater wealth than mercantilist restrictions.
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