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Mercantilist Trade Policy Framework

Type Object Region Britain Time 1601–1776

Mercantilism was a state-interventionist trade policy system widely adopted by major European countries in the 17th century, centered on export contr…

Timeline

  1. 1601–1630London · EnglandThe English East India Company was chartered in 1600, marking the institutionalization of state-authorized monopoly trade. Thomas Mun and others wrote treatises on trade between 1601 and 1630, systematically arguing the logic of national wealth through export surpluses and monetary accumulation.
  2. 1661–1683Paris · Île-de-FranceFrench comptroller general Jean-Baptiste Colbert developed mercantilism into the most systematic state policy practice, using high tariffs to protect manufacturing, subsidizing exports, establishing royal manufactories, and strengthening colonial control, forming the far-reaching 'Colbertism'.
  3. 1700–1776Western Europe · Western EuropeIn the first half of the 18th century, mercantilist policies reached their peak in the British, French, and Dutch colonial empires, with colonial trade systems becoming increasingly exclusive. In 1776, Adam Smith systematically overturned mercantilism's theoretical foundations in The Wealth of Nations with theories of free trade and division of labor, inaugurating the era of classical economics.

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