5.3 The Mercantilist Economy

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

  • Describe the theory of mercantilism
  • Explain the role of colonies in mercantilism
  • Identify the major criticisms of mercantilism

The success of Spain and Portugal in establishing settlements in the Americas, and more importantly, the profits they derived from those settlements, inspired other European nations to emulate them. The English, French, and Dutch all ventured across the Atlantic with the goal of founding colonies whose resources they could exploit in order to dominate rival powers.

The content of this course has been taken from the free World History, Volume 2: from 1400 textbook by Openstax