Mercantilism

Mercantilism was a policy for a nation to increase its wealth based on exporting more goods to other nations and territories than importing from them, as well as giving subsidies to politically favored businesses, often under the guise of infrastructure development combined also with a central bank with monopoly power. An excess of exports over imports increased the balance of trade and the acquisition of gold by the nation. Also, acquiring and using colonies to supply raw materials and provide foreign markets was a key aspect of mercantilism. Mercantilism was the British policy at the time of the American Revolution. For this reason, the United States has initially rejected mercantilism, though many of the Federalists, especially Alexander Hamilton, were huge proponents of mercantilism, disagreeing only with who was in charge. The nineteenth century in the U.S. was primarily an economic conflict between mercantilsts versus capitalists in the North, as well as feudalists in the South with its institution of slavery. Eventually mercantilism triumphed with Abraham Lincoln and the Republican and the economy of the U.S. since then has been primarily mercantilist with socialistic welfare programs.