Mercantilist Policies in Europe

Timeline

1. 1560–1569Seville and Lisbon · SevilleSpain controlled imports of American silver and goods through the Casa de Contratación in Seville, while Portugal monopolized the Asian spice trade through a similar mechanism; both countries used tariffs, licenses, and convoy escorts to ensure colonial profits flowed back to the homeland.
2. 1561–1569London and Paris · LondonUnder Elizabeth I, England expanded overseas trade through chartered bodies such as the Muscovy Company, while France, amid the Wars of Religion, maintained tariffs on imports and exports and royal monopolies; both sought to use state power to support their own merchants against Iberian dominance.
3. 1563–1570Baltic and North Seas · Baltic SeaIn the 1560s, the Northern Seven Years' War intertwined with Hanseatic trading networks, as Denmark, Sweden, and others competed for Baltic commercial interests through tariffs, port regulations, and naval power, showing mercantilist competition had extended to northern European waters.