Society and Culture Atlas

How People Live Together
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Institutions and Social Structures

Mercantilism

Economic Institutions

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

Mercantilism is an economic system and a form of nationalist economic policy designed to maximize a country's exports and minimize its imports, seeking to maximize the accumulation of resources within the country and to use those resources for one-sided trade. Mercantilist policy has historically contributed to armed conflict and motivated colonial expansion, and economic intervention, especially in industrializing countries, is sometimes described as a modern form of mercantilism.

Sources
Mercantilism (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationLead section
Quote, Lead section
Mercantilism is an economic system and type of nationalist economic policy that is designed to maximize the exports and minimize the imports of an economy.
View the Source

Take a Related Quiz

Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.