British Mercantile System

British Mercantile System

Introduction

At the start of the 1750s, a separate society had been created in the colonies which were combined by the intellectual currents like the Great Awakening and the Enlightenment. Although all of the colonies that had emerged had different demographic and social characteristics and they followed different religions, but all of them still had a common basic sense of unity which became stronger during the political and the economical turmoil.

In the early years of colonialism, Britain was involved in controlling the trade only and the other internal matters were left to be governed by the colonies. The relationship of the colonies with England was that of a parent child. Britain had realized that all of the different colonies had their own separate internal government that helped in dealing their own local matters and concerns, but it was the king who decided that since all of the people in all the colonies were British citizens, therefore the colonists must only do what was in the best interest of Britain. This kind of the economic relationship came to be known as the Mercantile system or Mercantilism.

Discussion

Under the idea of mercantilism, the colonies were considered to be very essential because they were the one who produced all the raw material for the mother country; they would produce goods such as sugar, grain and tobacco, themselves which the country would otherwise have to import. Because of these colonies, export also increased in the mother country which in turn helped in increasing job opportunities at home and their industrial development. But all of this would simply not have been possible if the colonies started to trade with other countries instead of their own mother country. This was the reason that Britain decided to take steps and forced the colonists to conduct business ...