HIS271Y1 Lecture Notes - Netherlands Antilles, Starving Time, Mercantilism
Document Summary
Mercantilism = fixed amount of wealth in the world (wealth as in gold and silver) To achieve economic success you had to sell as much as you could while limiting the amount of a specific product you needed to buy. Owning a colony made sense because you would end up having a market where you could sell things. Mercantilism dominated the thinking of most empires/rulers. 16th century, both the french and english monarchies financed explorers in hopes of finding passages. Sir walter raleigh said, whosoever commands the sea commands the trade; whosoever commands the trade of the world commands the riches of the world, and consequently the world itself. In trading with native american communities, factories in europe began producing/manufacturing products to meet the needs of these native americans. Another example is imposing ones faith on other people/groups of people/other nations (europeans were trying to convert some indigenous populations) in the end, both sides were changed.
