Question

Mercantilism took both an English and a French form. In which ways were the two forms similar? In which ways were they different? (3 paragraphs)

Answer 1

Answer (3) :

Mercantilism was a discovery that had transformed the economic paradigm of the European countries and specially that of England and France. Mercantilism is described as the economic system or policy by virtue of which a nation increased or expands its economic jurisdiction to foreign countries through trade and by using trade as the primary means of communication between the two countries, strives for the economic gains of itself. Mercantilism was estimated to be discovered by the British in the early period of the 16th century. The British had the control over many nations at that time as their colonial rule was widespread and had extended to far and wide nations. They discovered that mere the rule of other nations could be a progeny if they do not get the treasures and the highly available goods and services for themselves. Therefore, they started the quest of trade mercantilism where they would trade in some amount of the required necessities of the colonial nation they had overpowered and in exchange, they would import by themselves huge amount of goods, products or services from the country. This export route had a huge impact on the financial stability and the empowerment of England during that time. Moreover, England became a super power of financial economy and this had further helped them expansion of their colonial rule.

In contrast to the Mercantilism of the British, the French mercantilism was totally in contrary to the base requirement and the prodigies of the trade rules. The French had a very strong mercantilism rule and their primary motive was to get the requirements of their nation fulfilled through the trade mercantilism process. However, what differed between the English mercantilism and the French mercantilism, was the process in which the trade was carried out. Unlike in the English mercantilism, the French never used force as a means to get the trade in to their nation. The French only focused on free trade relations between the trading nations and in return had also helped in the development of the trading nation.

This major difference between the mercantilism of the English and that of the French went a long way in the establishment of mutual respect from the colonial countries for the French. Mercantilism had then evolved over the years to be more profoundly related to trade and less of rule in the next century.