History of the United States I / Unit 2 USH1 0179 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Mercantilism
The idea
Mercantilism was dominant from the fifteen hundreds to the late seventeen hundreds, and rested on the premise that only a limited amount of wealth, measured in gold and silver bullion, existed in the world. Nations therefore pursued power by accumulating precious metals through colonial extraction, and rejected free trade. Colonies existed to strengthen the colonising nation. The system required colonies rich in raw materials, inexpensive labour, colonial loyalty, and controlled shipping.
In practice
Colonies exporting raw materials exclusively to the mother country, which shipped back finished goods, and colonists forbidden to buy from anyone else.
Where people slip
This is the economic argument that made a permanent labour supply necessary, and the same logic returns in the imperial reforms of Unit 05. Spain's treasure fleets left Cuba annually, loaded by enslaved and native workers, and at Potosí a mountain of silver veins created a boom town.
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