Mercantilism: Difference between revisions

[[File:Rightunity-yellow.png]] [[:Category:Right Unity|RightUnity]] (usuallyUsually)<br>

[[File:Authright.png]] [[:Category:Authoritarian Right|AuthRight]] (someSome)

|aliases = Proto-Capitalism<br>Merchant Capitalism<br>Ultra-Protectionism<br>Right-Protectionism<br> Feudalism-Capitalism transition (debatably)<br>[[File:Columbus.png]] Literally Columbus<br> Imperialism of the 15th-18th centuries<br>

|song = [https://wwwyoutu.youtube.combe/watch?v=BxmB2DB10TsQ9yzenyI7_0 Eu4 theme - MercantilismThe RapVoyage]<br>

Traditionally, mercantilists believed that gold ownershipor wasother precious metals were the main indication of wealth; and gold is NOT manufactured, but rather exists in a finite supply on Earth and is simply divided amongst the nations that have it. The Great Steve Heimler from Heimler's History compared the way mercantilists saw gold to the way hungry people see a pie: There is only one pie, and everyone is trying to get as much as they can!

He emerged out of [[File:Feud.png]] [[Feudalism]] and was the precursor of [[File:Cap.png]] [[Capitalism]], although they both see wealth as radically different things.<br> Mercantilism is based on the core assumption that wealth exists in the form of precious metals and is simply distributed, thus it's based on the amount of gold/silver a country hadhas, and that the state/nation should focus on enriching themselves first. Since it believed that the real riches of a nation waswere a byproduct of the amount of gold and other precious metals that it had, it led to colonialism having a big focus on finding gold and silver mining places, since that would undermine the capacity of other powers to enrich themselves.<br> And due to seeing wealth as a zero-sum game, it also believes that increasing the national trade surplus will make the nation richer while making the other nations (its rivals and enemies) poorer.

As stated before, Mercantilism and [[File:Cap.png]] [[Capitalism]] see the nature of wealth as completely different. While Capitalism sees wealth as the goods and services produced and consumed, and sees gold simply as a meanmeans of exchange to obtain these goods;. Mercantilism sees gold as the goal, not as a meanmeans to an end.<br>Which This also leadleads to the core difference (in practice), which is trading policy.<br>While [[File:Cap.png]] [[Capitalism]] sees free trade as a way to increase the nation's wealth, since it lets the nation specialize in what it can do better while letting what it can't do to be handled by others and thus generate more wealth, Mercantilism sees free trade as something that weakens the nation by allowing its rivals (and trading partners in this situation) to stockpile more wealth which could've been kept by the nation, making it poorer.

This resulted in policies that sought to maximisemaximize the types of goods produced within the country and minimisingminimize things that needed to be imported, as well as increasing the nation's exports, usually translating into policies such as restricting the nationswho colonies could trade with, and what they were allowed to trade, if at all. Mercantilism was also generally in support of a strong merchant class, seeing them as on par with the nobility.

Mercantilism is a very old ideology, which stopped being relevant more than 3 centuries ago; but Mercantilist mentality (which isn't the same as [[File:Protect.png]] [[Protectionism|Protectionist mentality]]) can be seen in modern economic policy. The biggest example is USthe American trading policy under the [[File:Trumpism.png]] [[Right-Wing Populism|Trump administration]]. <br>Trump argued that the U.S. "loses" money spent in importing foreign goods and materials, and that a "strong economy" must run a trade surplus. Furthermore, the rhetoric of the president often suggests that any money spent on imports enriches foreign competitors at the expense of American businesses and workers.

Mercantilism acts as a stereotypical European Merchant, Banker, Sailor, and/or Noble investor in the 16th to 18th centuries.

*[[File:Neoliberal-iconClib.png]] [[NeoliberalismClassical Liberalism]] - ExportsFree goodTrade? importsMore badlike downgrade! Don't break the rules moron!

*[[File:ClibNative.png]] [[Classical LiberalismIndigenism]] - FreeSubmit Trade?and Morehand likeover Downgrade!the XDgold, savage!