Mercantilism, an Economic system used by Spain, France and England in the 1500 to 1800s to make money and gain power. An idea that a countries dominants and wealth depend on what and how it trades and how it gets access to those trades. Mercantilism is all about enriching the mother country and centered on the economic principle that was the driving force of why European nations started establishing colonies. A countries power depended on its wealth. If one nation hoped to grow richer, it had to do so at the expense of some other nation. European countries gained wealth by establishing colonies around the world; particularly in places they could gain access to excellent cheap raw materials. The idea of Mercantilism was to control the colonies