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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 3 page paper examines the belief known as 'mercantilism' and how it led to the Navigation Acts, which were one of the factors in causing the American Revolution. Bibliography lists 7 sources.
Page Count:
3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVMercan.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
for the revolt, but the taxes on paper and tea were only the last measures in a series of legislative acts that designed to benefit Britain at the expense of
her colonies; thinking that led her to lose those colonies entirely. This paper examines the belief known as "mercantilism" and how it led to the Navigation Acts, which in
turn led to rebellion. Mercantilism Mercantilism was an economic system prevalent in Europe from approximately 1500-1700; basically it was designed to insure that governments maintained a positive trade
balance (more exports than imports) (Mercantilism-Encarta, 2005). Of particular importance to the discussion of the American colonies is the fact that governments that believed in this theory felt justified
in interfering in the economic affairs of their citizens in order to achieve these ends; further, they believed that the wealth of a nation lies mainly "on the possession of
gold and silver" (Mercantilism-Encarta, 2005). With these beliefs solidly entrenched, its no wonder that countries such as Britain considered exploitation of their colonies "a legitimate method of providing the
parent [country] with precious metals and ... the raw materials on which export industries depended" (Mercantilism-Encarta, 2005). Mercantilism, according to one source, was "the first faltering effort at devising a
general theory of economics in the modern era" (Carson, 2005). Unfortunately, it was "weighted down" by "two assumptions ... which were cultural in origin rather than natural"; the assumptions
were that "wealth consists of precious metals, particularly gold" (which weve seen above); the second was that a mercantilist nation could get richer only at the expense of another nation
(Carson, 2005). Thus, although Britain hadnt found gold in America (it was the Spanish that had success in that venture), they still believed the theory inasmuch as it put
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