The british impire industrialization and mercantilism

▪ Student : Hiba Youcefi
▪ 3

rd

Year Group 1 / American
Civilization
▪ Dr.Mouaci

Online assignment
Britain is one of the nations which , hundred years ago , prompted to own colonies .Yet
what was remarkable about its policy is that it did not want its colonies to prosper and develop
due to a variety of grounds .First of all , it hindered greatly the economy for the sake of its own
economic interests . Britain realized this by imposing a set of special laws restricting the
manufacturing , exports and imports of the colonies allowing the transportation of goods
merely with British ships ( a crown-colony relationship ) . Moreover , through the Navigation
acts , a series of laws , Britain exported its manufactured products to American colonies and
forbade foreign and non-English ships from making trading links with them . Thus , this
permitted the mercantile Britain to drastically grow into a great , wealthy self-sufficient nation
. In other words . the wide variety of riches in America fulfilled Britain’s fondest dreams .
Politically , Britain did not want the colonies to forget or abandon their relationship with their
mother land as this may lighten their path , fostering them to grow into more autonomous and
stronger countries with different mind-sets , ideologies than the British . Therefore , this
autonomy Britain feared it may suddenly emerge in the populations of the new world could
shake its colonial territorial weight as one of the greatest nations that ever existed . Hence ,
any rebellious act from the colonies’ part represented an alarming danger to Britain from
political and most significantly , economic dimensions .

Mercantilism , the economic system whereby greatest countries like Britain
endeavoured to create an accumulation of wealth through a cluster of protective measures
and policies which have a broad variety of goals . From an economic scope , within this
system , the mercantile country tries to increase its exports and decrease its imports . As a
result , the country is expected to achieve a trade surplus by earning more amounts of money
than it spends . Hence , this enables it to achieve more profit and to boost its finances .
Additionally , through the triangular trade , Britain created trade routes linking its colonies in
Africa and America with England to dominate much of the world keeping its trade vivid
From a political angle , with the rise of powerful nations , every country aimed at adopting
this system in order to surpass its rivals and be the leading country by acquiring more
colonies and ,thus, more political weight through possessing most expensive armies . In other
words , the value of a particular nation hangs on the self-sufficiency and state power. Aside
from economy and politics , the mercantile hierarchies also aimed at controlling the
colonies from a social perspective . In brief , economically speaking , the main aim of
mercantilism revolves namely on dominating , assisting and directing the international
economics .

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