Mercantilism

Mercantilism is an economic policy that attempts to maximize exports while minimizing imports. Every country implements mercantilist policies to some degree. A country that exports more than it imports has a trade surplus, while a country that imports more than it exports has a trade deficit. Read this section, which gives a background on how mercantilist policies have shaped international trade.

Competing Mercantile Economies

It is easy to imagine the colonial world of North America as sharing many common features, made up as it was of Europeans who had gone into self-imposed (or sometimes imposed) exile from their home countries. In fact, the colonies were each organized around very different cultural and economic principles. Even among the first English-speaking colonies there were significant differences. In some instances they were also complementary.


Source: John Douglas Belshaw, https://opentextbc.ca/preconfederation/chapter/6-3-competing-mercantile-economies/
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