For the Dutch
shippers, as the common-carriers of the merchandise of Europe,
had certain leanings towards free-trade and therefore had
to be destroyed at all cost.
It will be easily understood how such a system must affect
the colonies. A colony under the Mercantile System became
merely a reservoir of gold and silver and spices, which was
to be tapped for the benefit of the home country. The Asiatic,
American and African supply of precious metals and the raw
materials of these tropical countries became a monopoly of
the state which happened to own that particular colony. No
outsider was ever allowed within the precincts and no native
was permitted to trade with a merchant whose ship flew a
foreign flag.
Undoubtedly the Mercantile System encouraged the development
of young industries in certain countries where there
never had been any manufacturing before. It built roads
and dug canals and made for better means of transportation.
It demanded greater skill among the workmen and gave the
merchant a better social position, while it weakened the power
of the landed aristocracy.
On the other hand, it caused very great misery. It made
the natives in the colonies the victims of a most shameless
exploitation. It exposed the citizens of the home country to an
even more terrible fate. It helped in a great measure to turn
every land into an armed camp and divided the world into little
bits of territory, each working for its own direct benefit,
while striving at all times to destroy the power of its neighbours
and get hold of their treasures.
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