Editing Mercantilism (section)

==History==
[[File:Il Ritorno del Bucintoro al molo nel giorno dell'Ascensione (c.1738) Canaletto - Wells-Next-The-Sea, The Earl of Leicester and Trustees of the Holkham Estate.jpg|thumb|Merchants in [[Venice]]|upright=1.2]]
Mercantilism became the dominant school of economic thought in Europe throughout the late [[Renaissance]] and the [[early modern period]] (from the 15th to the 18th centuries). Evidence of mercantilistic practices appeared in early modern [[Venice]], [[Genoa]], and [[Pisa]] regarding control of the Mediterranean trade in [[bullion]]. However, the [[empiricism]] of the [[Renaissance]], which first began to quantify large-scale trade accurately, marked the beginning of mercantilism as a codified school of economic theories.<ref name="John J. McCusker 2001"/>  The Italian economist and mercantilist [[Antonio Serra]] is considered to have written one of the first treatises on political economy in his 1613 work, ''A Short Treatise on the Wealth and Poverty of Nations''.<ref name="List1916">{{cite book|author=Friedrich List|title=The National System of Political Economy|url=https://archive.org/details/nationalsystemp00nichgoog|year=1916|publisher=A.M. Kelley|page=[https://archive.org/details/nationalsystemp00nichgoog/page/n315 265]}}</ref>

Mercantilism, in its simplest form, is all about bullionism, or the theory that a nation's wealth is measured in terms of how much precious metal, particularly gold and silver, it possesses. Mercantilist authors were concerned with the movement of money, however, more than with the hoarding of it. They felt that money needed to move through the economy to induce trade and economic activity, a concept different from that of simply amassing wealth. This focus on money's role, specifically precious metals, mirrors modern discussions of the money supply and its implications for economic growth, i.e., how money supply expansion can stimulate economic activity. However, with the advent of fiat money (money not backed by a physical commodity) and floating exchange rates, the importance of specie (gold and silver) in economic systems has diminished. Progressively, the focus shifted from the handling of money to the implementation of industrial policies that placed greater economic goals, e.g., stimulating general prosperity and supporting technological and industrial advancement, above the financing of war.

England began the first large-scale and integrative approach to mercantilism during the [[Elizabethan Era]] (1558–1603). An early statement on national balance of trade appeared in ''Discourse of the Common Wealth of this Realm of England'', 1549: "We must always take heed that we buy no more from strangers than we sell them, for so should we impoverish ourselves and enrich them."<ref>Now attributed to [[Thomas Smith (diplomat)|Sir Thomas Smith]]; quoted in {{Harvtxt|Braudel|1979}}, p. 204.</ref> The period featured various but often disjointed efforts by the court of [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth I]] (r. 1558–1603) to develop a naval and merchant fleet capable of challenging the Spanish stranglehold on trade and of expanding the growth of bullion at home. Queen Elizabeth promoted the [[Trade and Navigation Acts]] in Parliament and issued orders to her navy for the protection and promotion of English shipping.

Authors noted most for establishing the English mercantilist system include [[Gerard de Malynes]] ({{floruit}} 1585–1641) and [[Thomas Mun]] (1571–1641), who first articulated the Elizabethan system (''England's Treasure by Foreign Trade or the Balance of Foreign Trade is the Rule of Our Treasure''), which [[Josiah Child]] ({{circa|1630/31}}–1699) then developed further.

Numerous French authors helped cement French policy around [[statism|statist]] mercantilism in the 17th century, as [[King Louis XIV of France|King Louis XIV]] (reigned 1643–1715) followed the guidance of [[Jean Baptiste Colbert]], his [[Controller-General of Finances]] from 1665 to 1683 who revised the tariff system and expanded industrial policy. [[French mercantilism|Colbertism]] was based on the principle that the state should rule in the economic realm as it did in the diplomatic, and that the interests of the state as identified by the king were superior to those of merchants and of everyone else. Mercantilist economic policies aimed to build up the state, especially in an age of incessant warfare, and theorists charged the state with looking for ways to strengthen the economy and to weaken foreign adversaries.<ref>
Jerome Blum et al. ''The European World: A history'' (1970) p. 279.
</ref>{{qn|date=January 2019}}

In Europe, academic belief in mercantilism began to fade in the late-18th century after the [[East India Company]] annexed the [[Mughal Bengal]],<ref>{{cite book|title=How India Clothed the World: The World of South Asian Textiles, 1500–1850|author=Giorgio Riello, Tirthankar Roy|publisher=[[Brill Publishers]]|year=2009|page=174|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=niuwCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA174|isbn=978-90-474-2997-5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Modern World System and Indian Proto-industrialization: Bengal 1650–1800, (Volume 1)|author=Abhay Kumar Singh|publisher=Northern Book Centre|year=2006|isbn=978-81-7211-201-1}}</ref> a major trading nation, and the establishment of [[Company rule in India|British India]] through the activities of the East India Company,<ref>{{cite book|title=Money and the Market in India, 1100–1700|author=Sanjay Subrahmanyam|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1998|isbn=978-0-521-25758-9|author-link=Sanjay Subrahmanyam}}</ref> in light of the arguments of [[Adam Smith]] (1723–1790) and of the [[classical economics|classical economists]].<ref>
{{cite web
 |last1= Humphrey |first1= Thomas M.
 |title= Insights From Doctrinal History. Mercantilists. Classicals
 |url= https://www.richmondfed.org/~/media/richmondfedorg/publications/research/annual_report/1998/pdf/article.pdf
 |website= Richmond Federal Reserve |access-date= 14 June 2018
 |quote = [...] the mercantilism of [[John Law (economist)|John Law]] and Sir [[James Steuart (economist)|James Steuart]] gave way to the classicism of [[David Hume]] and [[David Ricardo]] [...].
}}
</ref> French economic policy liberalized greatly under [[Napoleon]] (in power from 1799 to 1814/1815). The British Parliament's repeal of the [[Corn Laws]] under [[Robert Peel]] in 1846 symbolized the emergence of [[free trade]] as an alternative system.