Mercantilism In The 17th And 18th Centuries

In the 17th and 18th centuries, European kingdoms began to discover the economic system of Mercantilism. Mercantilism revolved around trade and was based on the strong beliefs in the benefits of profitable trading. During this time, the Dutch increased in wealth and became one of England’s biggest trading competitors. The Dutch became so successful that if the English were to succeed, they would need to get rid of Holland’s control over the carrying trade in the North. This feud between the two continued to grow worse as the Dutch sought to drive the English from the commerce of the countries. The English fought back by creating a series of laws hoping to promote the mother country and demote, or better yet remove the Dutch’s rank in the international

The combination of slave trading and the Mercantilism economic policy of England created the Triangular Trade. The Triangular Trade was a system in which slaves, raw materials, manufactured products, and other various items were traded between England, Africa, and the American Colonies. First, manufactured goods from England such as cloth, beads, guns, and ammunition were shipped across the Atlantic to Africa. Second, slaves, gold, and pepper from Africa were then shipped to the American Colonies for the exchange of raw materials such as timber, fur, iron, fish, whale oil, sugar, tobacco, rice and cotton. From there, ships would take the raw items back to England where more manufactured goods would be produced and then the same process would start all over again. Without the establishment of the 13 colonies and their supply of raw materials, the triangular trading system would not be

For most of the colonial history, the acts did not have a significant impact mainly due to the lack of enforcement by the British. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the discovery of the economic system of Mercantilism and the fierce competition with the Dutch can be observed. With a change in government in England, came a series of Navigation Acts. Part of the scope of these acts was restriction of colonial trade along with other minor adjustments. It is interesting to note that the Act of 1660 requiring everything to be shipped in English made vessels, owned and manned by Englishmen, was repeated centuries later when the Alaska Territories acquired from Russia were brought under the same restrictions from the Americans. Seeking wealth over common good was as hurtful to Alaska as the English acts had been to the colonies, not to mention the effects of the slave trade in Africa. However, we have also seen that there were positive aspects to the Navigation Acts. The expansion of the shipping industry, creating new jobs in various industries, and revenue to the government increased with new taxes. As for the colonies, England’s desire was for them to be dependent upon her and the colonies interests were always to be to the Crown. In Areas of trade and revenue (and