Mercantilism

Mercantilism linked trade to national wealth and power. Its supporters believed that a country should export more than it imported, bringing wealth into the country rather than sending it abroad. They associated wealth particularly with stocks of gold and silver.

England’s Navigation Acts reflected mercantilism: the aim of increasing the home country’s wealth by controlling trade and using colonies for its benefit. However, colonial merchants sometimes ignored these rules, and weak enforcement limited their effectiveness. Imperial expansion created opportunities, but government ambitions did not automatically become economic results.