mercantile system
- noun
- /ˈmɜr.kən.taɪl ˈsɪs.təm/
- Formal
:
sistema mercantil
- But in the mercantile system of deliberate national economic development, the interest of the consumer is almost constantly sacrificed to that of the producer; and it seems to consider production, and not consumption, as the ultimate end and object of all industry and commerce.
Examples
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Many scholars debate the impact of the mercantile system on colonial trade during the 16th and 17th centuries.
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The rest is concerned with the history, description, and analysis of the mercantile system, colonial administration, jurisprudence, education, and tax policy.
Academic text (1992) -
On the one hand, they were devoted to expanding a mercantile system which was based in part on the enslavement of Blacks.
Academic text (1991) -
The mercantile system dominated European economies, focusing on the accumulation of gold and silver through trade regulations.
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Under the mercantile system, nations sought to maximize their exports while minimizing imports to increase national wealth.
Synonyms
1
9.9
An old economic idea that governments control trade to make their country rich and powerful
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
A learner who knows 'mercantile' (trade-related) and 'system' (a set of rules) can infer that this phrase refers to a system concerning trade or commercial policy, so the basic idea is compositionally accessible. However, the full, historically specific meaning—an early-modern policy of state regulation to accumulate precious metals and increase national wealth—is specialized background knowledge and not predictable from the parts alone, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
The phrase mercantile system comes from mercantile, a word for merchants, and system, meaning a planned way of doing things. Imagine rulers tightly controlling merchants and colonies to bring gold and silver into the royal chest, and you can see why it means 'a government-controlled trade policy to make the country rich'.