In the early 18th century the English lost some of their enthusiasm for bullion alone and placed chief emphasis on commerce and industry. Okay, now that we know the difference between a manufactured good and natural resource, let's remember the two parts of an empire: the mother country and the colonies. Mercantilism is an economic theory where a nation's strength comes from building up gold supplies and expanding its trade. Lumber, wool, iron, cotton, tobacco, rice, and indigo were among the products needed in England. These questions are the types of questions that were answered by an economic theory called mercantilism. A stamp duty is a tax that a government imposes on certain legal documents, usually involving the transfer of property or other assets. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-mercantilism-104590. Swift rivers were not needed to make draperies, so the mills were built and flourished in more rural areas, especially outside of London. England did not profit from the sale of goods. Print showing Europeans and Native Americans trading furs. Cynthia Clark Northrup and Jerry H. Bentley. The American Colonies were a significant part of the English Mercantile System for two main reasons: Those raw materials would be gathered in the colonies and then shipped back to England where they would be manufactured into goods. Were they effective? This rule is important for those who study the American Revolution because one of the complaints of the American colonists against the British crown was their inability to industrialize like in Great Britain. Not only did these new resources provide England with a large source of revenue, but so too did the slave trade. How does a country grow big and powerful? The colonists hated mercantilism for a variety of reasons. Discover mercantilism in the history of the world. Americans provided raw goods to Britain, and Britain used the raw goods that were sold in European markets and back to the colonies. Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain. Consequently, in places like the American South, Caribbean, and Brazil, massive amounts of Africans were tragically forced to migrate and work as slaves collecting natural resources. More payments were made with money, instead of goods and services (payment-in-kind). The way that they kept their economy healthy was through a system called mercantilism. The British had an empire to run. Though the system continued for nearly two centuries, Spain was a poor country by 1700. In this video from Finding Your Roots, Tina Fey learns about an ancestor who helped Benjamin Franklin develop the manufacturing industry in the American colonies. Mercantilism is an economic practice by which governments used their economies to augment state power at the expense of other countries. It heightened the tax on tea imports to British colonies from foreign colonies and countries. England needed raw materials that her colonies could supply. The purpose of the Navigation Act of 1651 was to force all exports from the colonies to an English port, so customs duties could be paid before the ship went to a foreign harbor. Middle School US History: Help and Review, Settling North America & the Colonies: Help and Review, Who Was Captain John Smith of Jamestown? It forced all shipments within the empire to be taken to an English port and banned colonial merchants from trading with foreign nations.