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Mercantilism

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Mercantilism
The year 1607 brought England into the "New World" with its first permanent settlement at Jamestown, and the following years would bring more American colonies to the British Empire. When sending people into the new land, the English planned to use a mercantilist policy and fully use the colonies for their resources. The colonist's creation of the proverb "Mother countries exist for the benefit of their colonies" is sufficient because England's original intentions of mercantilism soon disappeared after their entrance into this new world. The reason for the decline in their motives can be traced to many occurrences, most notably benign neglect of the colonies and internal English conflicts. In many cases, the mother country was doing more for the colonies than the colonies were for their homeland. Besides offering them protection and giving them more rights than the Englishmen, England also guaranteed the colonists a market to sell products. The English had one of the best naval forces in the world and as a result of being under British control; the colonies also had the privilege of having an excellent navy. The same policy went for ground troops, the colonists were given protection from the French and Indians without having to train a large army. British redcoats were trained in England and sent to protect colonists in America. As stated by Dean Tucker in "Dean Tucker Advises a Divorce", colonial protection put severe burden on the English treasury. 300,000 to 400,000 pounds a year were spent on protecting colonies. Adam Smith also touches this subject in "Adam Smith Criticizes Empire". Smith argues that as a result of sending British troops to America during wars, England lost a large quantity of money. This shows that in many cases the English were in fact working for the colonies, although the principal of mercantilism shows the opposite. Unlike those that actually lived in England and had to pay large sums of money to support the army, the colonists

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