Essay Sample on Mercantilism and Its Effect on Colonial America

Mercantilism is a theory of countries competing to become the wealthiest. An “efficient” way of executing this theory was through colonies. Many colonists will come to North America not for their country but instead of themselves. Colonies are generally a distant away from the mother country making them more independent. This system of mercantilism was a land mine when it came to conflict involving North American British territories. In a sense that one decision can drastically affect the relationship between the colonies and Britain which can result in wars. 

Colonists came to North America for their own self-interest. “The natural desire of every individual is to improve his own condition (life)“(I). Coming to the colonies is a way to get a better life. The Quakers can the colonies to get away from their slaughter back in England. Moreover, the Pilgrims came to North America not for the growth of their Mother country but for their own benefit.  “In the name of God, Amen. We, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord, King James, …, having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, ...”(B). This piece of the Mayflower Compact states that the Pilgrims made the decision to come to North America to further their religion, which is a form of self-interest, instead of the growth of the Mother country. Having people come that are not completely loyal will cause problems in the long run, an example would be how Massachusetts was the one first to have conflict with Britain.

Although there was conflict in the north with Britain, colonies in the south weren’t affected. For quite a long time the colonies were on their own and were not unified, since their economy was different. Document E is a good example of their independence. The north had more trades than the south and consisted of whale oil, furs, lumber, flour, etc. as an export; their imports were manufactured goods. The south only imported slaves and exported cash crops. The map of Transatlantic trade shows how the colonies’ work force and source of income were different. The north grew their wealth through trades while the south grew their cash crops. Document E shows that the only import of the south are slaves, this shows that the south was heavily dependent on slavery. In Document D it shows an image of 292 slaves in a ship. The south did have a lot of people and they were spread out so using/depending on slaves was the best decision. This difference in economy and way of life became a cause of war, Civil War. The same can be said with colonies and Britain.