Mercantalism and Colonial Trade
Storyboard Text
- Judiciary Act of 1789
- Good Thing We've Got Colonies!
- Things Get Slightly Tyrannical
- NO TRADE, BLOODY PILLOCKS!
- Mercantilism was the dominant economic system of European nations during the 16th century. It essentially follows the principle that the world's amount of wealth was static, and could only be gained or lost. As such, the idea was to prioritize exports and to build up domestic supplies of wealth, especially gold and silver.
- ...This May Have Been a Poor Idea in Hindsight
- Uh-Oh.
- Our story shifts to Great Britain, as it often does. Naturally, England wishes to grow its wealth, but has the unfortunate problem of being an island nation, giving them little natural resources. Thankfully, Britain has an ingenious solution: just sell to themselves! Britain could trade raw materials from their Colonies in exchange for processing them into finished goods back home, which they could than trade back to the colony or other European nations for a nice profit.
- Of course, the British aren't the only ones selling to their colonies. In order to ensure minimal competition from other European nations wishing to trade, they begin to enact a series of restrictive trade laws. The Navigation Act disallowed foreign trading vessels from trading along the British coasts, and domestic tariffs on foreign goods imported into the colonies ensured Britain kept colonial trade in their own hands.
- Natives
- Britain's ever increasing need for wealth combined with massive spending due to war led to even stricter economic policies being imposed onto the colonies. Eventually, this would lead to major friction between the colonists and Britain, eventually leading up to the American revolution. Even though mercantilism is a mostly dead economic systems, its effects can still be felt in the world today.
- Natives were people that were originally from Latin America before its takeover by Spain. They were originally used as slave labour. Spain eventually stopped using natives because they died off fast and frequently escaped due to their knowledge of the land.
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