English Mercantilism Harmed the Development of North America

By establishing large monopolies and exemptions to a stream of companies, and the efforts by the colonial government to recover the crown, mercantilism gradually killed the trade within the British colonies. What may have started as an innocent harvest for natural resources turned into egocentric seize of the raw materials from the weak North Americans by the British in a bid to enrich themselves? Mercantilism developed in a period when the European economy was evolving. The isolated medieval states were replaced by centralized as the sole power. However, it was a witty move by the British royals to control all forms of the trade so that they could create monopolistic fair. This eliminated any possibilities of a free trade where the North American locals could sell and purchase their products and dictate their prices. Rather, the ferrying of slaves from the Africa and Indian countries only increased their dependency, reduced level of literacy and hence dragged any forms of positive developments.
The most outspoken economic concept in the 17th century was mercantilism. This was an economic policy where the Spain, Britain, and France sought to increase their power and wealth over their rivals by snatching large amounts of silver and gold and selling them at a higher price than they bought. Their primary objective was to become self-sufficient and control the colonial trade. As a result, they ended up exploiting each of their colonies’ raw materials and dictated the costs of all other goods without the trade fairs.

Some stipulated acts served as the golden rules. This came to be emulated as the primary regulations and the cause of the harm for the development of the North America. The British government declared that the trade across North America was only allowed on the colonial or English ships. Further, the vessels had to be operated by approved colonial or English crews. Secondly, all the goods imported to the colonies had to be ferried directly from no other port other than England. This made the trade a monopoly where particular or enumerated commodities were the only exports to England (Staley, 1983). The British government had to approve any deal before they were traded to North America. Eventually, mercantilism created adverse consequences for Nort America.
The mercantilism killed the development of the development of North America in some ways. First, the manufacturing in the North America was entirely limited. This was because the British government wanted to control all the trading activities. They only wanted to fetch the raw materials and ferry it back to their countries so that they could resell it the products at a higher price. This derailed the hosts from manufacturing their goods. Apart from paying Chesapeake farmers poorly, the colonies also hiked the price of the goods (“Mercantilism,” 2016). This was a move to block them from realizing their merchandise and having stronger trading power.
It is worth noting that mercantilism was not inevitable as the colonies would have traded with Britain in the end due to their cultural heritage and language. These laws were uncalled for by the British as they were strictly but selfishly enforced. There was too much a coastline for the British to cover for the drift. As a result, the coastline became popular when some goods such as tea and sugar were re-established in the colonies (Emerson, 2016). This created resentments and resistance for the British rule and hence the trade was killed between the two countries. What killed the trade the more was the reduced emigration to the colonies especially from Britain to North America. This could have created a chance develop America by the Western nations. Where slaves were the dependable workforce for the British, they were no viable for any worthy development in the North America (Brewer, 1988). They did not have the knowledge to foster development but rather they only became dependable. Their stay in the tobacco and cotton plantations created a weak generation that only created more problems for the state.
Mercantilism was a form of triangular trade that only benefitted the British colonists. The trade routes that linked the North American colonies, West Indies, England and Africa were entirely controlled by the British and hence directed all the profits to the later. The British trading strategies did not allow the North America to exploit their resources and hence develop manufacturing firms. Apart from sparring the rise in the slave population in the state, their forms of trade swaps only drained the America of their raw materials and power to trade.

References
Brewer, A. (1988). Cantillon and mercantilism. History Of Political Economy, 20(3), 447-460. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/00182702-20-3-447
Emerson, R. (2016). WHAT WERE THE EFFECTS OF COLONIALISM AND MERCANTILISM IN AMERICA?. Georgie Nicholls. Retrieved 12 December 2016, from https://gnicholls.wordpress.com/2013/01/31/what-were-the-effects-of-colonialism-and-mercantilism-in-america/
Mercantilism. (2016). U-s-history.com. Retrieved 12 December 2016, from http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h622.html
Staley, C. (1983). Mercantilism as a rent-seeking society: economic regulation in historical perspective. History Of Political Economy, 15(1), 141-142. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215 /00182702-15-1-141