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History vocabulary · Economic History

Mercantilism

Meaning in history, with examples

/ˈmɜːkəntɪlɪzəm/nounCommon term

In history, mercantilism means: An economic policy common in Europe from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century that tried to increase a state's wealth and power by exporting more than it imported and building up gold and silver.

In Turkish: merkantilizm

How it is used

Associated with tariffs, state-backed trading companies and colonies that supplied raw materials. Adam Smith criticised it in The Wealth of Nations (1776). Historians debate how far it was a coherent theory rather than a set of practices.

Example sentences

  1. Under mercantilism, colonies were expected to buy manufactured goods only from the mother country.

  2. Colbert's policies in France are a classic example of mercantilism.

Common collocations

  • European mercantilism
  • mercantilist policy
  • the age of mercantilism
  • mercantilist theory
  • trade routeA regular path by land, river or sea along which merchants carried goods between regions, such as the Silk Road or the spice routes of the Indian Ocean.
  • colonialismThe policy or practice of a state taking control of other territories and peoples, settling or ruling them, and using their land and resources for its own benefit.
  • guildAn association of craftsmen or merchants in the same trade that set standards, controlled training and prices, and protected its members, especially in medieval and early modern towns.
  • industrializationThe process by which an economy shifts from mainly farming and handicrafts to large-scale manufacturing in factories using machines.

More terms: Economic History

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