Short answers, pulled from the story.
Mercantilism is an economic policy that aims to maximize a country's exports and minimize its imports, accumulating gold, silver, and resources within the country. It emphasizes government regulation of the economy to build state power at the expense of rival nations.
Mercantilism was the dominant economic ideology in Europe roughly from the 15th to the early 19th century, particularly during the period of proto-industrialization from the 16th to 19th centuries.
Key figures include Thomas Mun (1571-1641), whose England's Treasure by Forraign Trade Adam Smith called the archetype of mercantilist texts; Antonio Serra, who wrote one of the first political economy treatises in 1613; Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who implemented French mercantilist policy as finance minister from 1665 to 1683; and Philipp Wilhelm von Hornick, who detailed a nine-point mercantilist program in 1684.
Mercantilism viewed trade as zero-sum, meaning one nation's gain required another's loss. This logic justified seizing colonies for gold and sugar, creating exclusive markets, and fighting wars to control trade routes. The four Anglo-Dutch Wars from 1652 to 1784 and the Franco-Dutch Wars from 1672 to 1678 are directly linked to mercantilist competition.
Critics including John Locke in 1690, David Hume, and Adam Smith in 1776 demonstrated that a permanent trade surplus was self-defeating, that bullion was no different from any other commodity, and that both parties in a trade could benefit. Britain repealed the Corn Laws under Robert Peel in 1846, marking the formal arrival of free trade.
Some economists still apply the label. In 2007, Robert J. Samuelson described China's trade policies as neo-mercantilist. After the 2024 US election, Branko Milanovic described the new US tariff policies as neo-mercantilism, calling them a symbolic end to global neoliberalism.