HIST 190 Lecture 3: 65_U.S_History-LR
Document Summary
Commerce in the new world the economic philosophy of mercantilism shaped european perceptions of wealth from the 1500s to the late 1700s. In order to gain power, nations had to amass wealth by mining these precious raw materials from their colonial possessions. During the age of european exploration, nations employed conquest, colonization, and trade as ways to increase their share of the bounty of the new world. Mercantilists did not believe in free trade, arguing instead that the nation should control trade to create wealth. Mercantilists argued against allowing their nations to trade freely with other nations. These ships groaned under the sheer weight of bullion, for the spanish had found huge caches of silver and gold in the new world. Throughout the sixteenth century, potos (cid:173) was a boom town, attracting settlers from many nations as well as native people from many different cultures.
