Try to get possession of as many precious metals
as you can.
2. Encourage foreign trade in preference to domestic
trade.
3. Encourage those industries which change raw materials
into exportable finished products.
4. Encourage a large population, for you will need workmen
for your factories and an agricultural community
does not raise enough workmen.
5. Let the State watch this process and interfere whenever
it is necessary to do so.
Instead of regarding International Trade as something
akin to a force of nature which would always obey certain natural
laws regardless of man's interference, the people of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries tried to regulate their
commerce by the help of official decrees and royal laws and financial
help on the part of the government.
In the sixteenth century Charles V adopted this Mercantile
System (which was then something entirely new) and introduced
it into his many possessions. Elizabeth of England
flattered him by her imitation. The Bourbons, especially King
Louis XIV, were fanatical adherents of this doctrine and Colbert,
his great minister of finance, became the prophet of Mercantilism
to whom all Europe looked for guidance.
The entire foreign policy of Cromwell was a practical
application of the Mercantile System. It was invariably directed
against the rich rival Republic of Holland.
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