Mercantilism & Overseas Empires

Ch 17: Transatlantic Economy, Trade Wars & Colonial Rebellions

FYI’s

• Ch 17 ID quiz Monday !

• Test Grades & DBQs back tomorrow

(some DBQ grades are already posted)

• Giving a test at the end of the 6 weeks is terrible but unavoidable. With that being said, I’ll let you do a retest on Monday or Tuesday of next week (for up to a 70) and do a grade change if that’s something that would help you

Factors leading to Mercantilism

• Rise of the nation-state

• Commercial revolution

• Decline of the medieval economy

Mercantilism: Characteristics

• Bullionism - the economic health of a nation could be measured by the amount of precious metal it possessed

• “Favorable Balance of Trade” Export more than you import

-High tariffs on imported goods-Low tariffs on exported goods

Dominant Economic Systems

1. Feudalism (1000s – ca. 1500)

2. Mercantilism (1500s – 1700s)

3. Free-enterprise (1700s – 1918)

Mercantilism: Characteristics

• Each nation must try to achieve economic self-sufficiency• Sea power was necessary to control foreign markets

Mercantilism: Characteristics

COLONIES =• Source of raw materials• Market for products

MOTHER COUNTRY = • Provides manufactured

goods• Provides military

protection

Mercantilism: Characteristics

• State action was needed to acquire a monopoly over trade• Colonies meant to trade exclusively with home country; hard to enforce because it was more profitable to trade with other colonies

Jean Baptiste Colbert(1619-1683)

• French economist under Louis XIV• “Inventor” of mercantilism

• Created the economic base needed to fund France’s wars

• Transformed France into a major commercial power

Who benefited most from Mercantilism?

• Monarchs• Merchant capitalists• Joint-stock companies• Government officials

European Overseas Empires

• Four phases of European contact with the New World:– Discovery, exploration, conquest, settlement—to end of

17th c.

– Mercantile empires & great power trade rivalries; slavery; colonial independence—to 1820s

– 19th-c. empires in Africa & Asia

– Decolonization, mid- to late-20th c.

• Source of European world domination: technology (ships & guns)

Mercantile Empires, Early 18th c. —Boundaries Set by 1713 Treaty of Utrecht

• Spain: South America except for Brazil; Florida, Mexico, California & N. American Southwest; Central America; Caribbean possessions

• Britain: N. Atlantic seaboard, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland; Caribbean possessions; trading posts on Indian subcontinent

• France: St. Lawrence, Ohio, & Mississippi river valleys; Caribbean possessions; trading posts in India & West Africa

• Netherlands: Surinam (S. America); Cape Colony (S. Africa); trading posts in West Africa, Sri Lanka, & India; also controlled trade in SE Pacific

Treaty of Utrecht 1713

The Treaty of Utrecht put an end to the 1701–1714 War of the Spanish Succession between the Grand Alliance—initially made up of England, the United Provinces (Netherlands), and the Holy Roman Empire,—and a coalition of France, Spain, and a number of Italian and German principalities. To gain peace, Louis XIV had to sacrifice colonies.

The agreements were mostly favorable to England, which had officially become Great Britain in 1701. England came away with Newfoundland (including the Saint-Pierre and Miquelon archipelago), Acadia, the Hudson Bay territory, and the Caribbean island of Saint Christopher (today St. Kitts and Nevis). France went so far as to recognize Great Britain's dominion over the land of the Iroquois Confederacy, which offended the Iroquois, who considered that the two powers did not have the right to decide their fate. Even so, the map of North America had been transformed.

Treaty of Utrecht 1713

Spain & the New World

Viceroyalties

Spanish Trade Regulation

• At first, only one port authorized for use in American trade Seville

• Casa de Contratación, established in 1503 by Queen Isabella, regulated all trade with New World

• Controlled the African slave trade, scheduled ships and shipping routes, collected duties, and maintained royal revenues

Colonial Reform Under the Spanish Bourbon Monarchs

• Crucial early 18th cent change: War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14) and Treaty of Utrecht replaced Spanish Habsburgs with Bourbons of France

• Philip V (r. 1700–24) and successors tried to revive decaying trade monopoly, suppress smuggling

Colonial Reform Under the Spanish Bourbon Monarchs (cont.)

• Charles III (r. 1759–1788): most important imperial reformer

• Loosened trade restrictions, which strengthened imperial economy, BUT…

• Royal representatives, peninsulares, were favored over local councils; Introduced tensions between Spanish from Spain and creoles (Spanish born in America)