Mercantilism

Centuries of Warfare Caused by One Economic Policy

Mercantilism is a statist economic policy. This policy is rooted in the belief that the civil government can own property. History is very clear on the symptoms of this belief. When the state as an institution, meddles with the economy, it meddles with human lives. It was mercantilism that enslaved half the globe and, mercantilism that caused nearly every great conflict for half a millennium. Thus, if the policy is not uprooted now, its forbidden fruit may be our undoing.

Property is power. When the civil sphere is allowed power beyond its biblical allotment, it begins to acquire it with anti-biblical means. Mercantilism is a list of anti-biblical means of acquiring property, formulated into economic policy and then applied to every scenario the state wishes to monetarily benefit from.
Most humanist states subjugate its citizens to mass and systematic theft, called taxation. But a nation implementing mercantilist policy, goes much farther. Mercantilist policy exploits every possible means of wealth. Philipp Wilhelm von Hornick, who wrote the book “Austria Over All, If She Only Will” shows the steps to be taken.

“(1) To inspect the country’s soil with the greatest care, and not to leave the agricultural possibilities of a single corner or clod of earth unconsidered…”

Land was essential, to the mercantilist agenda. It provided raw materials, and space for industrial sites. The pictures of 19th century London, with profuse squalor, tight living spaces and out matched poverty, were most likely caused, not by capitalism, but by the state’s land grabs and phony business deals to secure this essential resource.

“(2) All commodities found in a country, which cannot be used in their natural state, should be worked up within the country…”

Manufactured goods were more valuable, so raw materials, in spite a starving population, were to be sold and taxed.

“(3) Attention should be given to the population, that it may be as large as the country can support…”

Population growth was to be encouraged. The state needed slaves and soldiers, regardless of how they felt about the crowded conditions. Civilians were cattle so long as they paid their taxes. This disregard for human life, set the stage for the African slave trade and England’s domination over the Irish, Indians, and Native Americans.

“(4) gold and silver once in the country are under no circumstances to be taken out for any purpose…”

National hoarding was the big leagues of the day. Gold being the nation’s score, was not sent away easily.

“(5) The inhabitants should make every effort to get along with their domestic products…”

Buying things from other nations, in the state’s mind, outsourcing power, would weaken the state by giving property to other nations. Foreign products became illegal in order for the state keep control on its power.

“(6) [Foreign commodities] should be obtained not for gold or silver, but in exchange for other domestic wares…”

Buying anything with real currency was forbidden. All private goods, gold, and services must be in hands reach of the state, so it could be used when needed.

“(7) …and should be imported in unfinished form, and worked up within the country…”

Monopoly made the state the ultimate insider. Imports gave the people the ability to buy products not from the crony capitalists, taking power from the state.

“(8) Opportunities should be sought night and day for selling the country’s superfluous goods to these foreigners in manufactured form…”

By true market standards, this wouldn’t have worked. But wars and rumors of wars made demand for refined goods that a peaceful society could live without. War and destruction became an addictive drug that gave the state mass amounts of power in every shot.

“(9) No importation should be allowed under any circumstances of which there is a sufficient supply of suitable quality at home.”

Mercantilist policy makes the market, the state’s play-thing. Something to be fiddled with until it gives way to the state’s relentless desire. A nation implementing mercantilist policy, would through taxes, tariffs, coercion, regulations suck gold out of the market, all this to bring more and more property under the reigns of the state. To the many central planners of the age this made perfect sense. But the policy of the government’s perfect sense was and is fatal to any organic market. Without being able to buy goods from other nations (the deportation of gold) the market began to starve.
By the 16th century mercantilism had embedded itself into European society. Each of the great nations saw it in their authority, to take what they sought fit. It was the divine right of kings, for rulers to claim what they will, and patriotism for their citizen to support their malevolence against such chosen victims. This belief in absolute governance, came with the revival of classical literature and thought which flourished during the Renaissance. This mindset of royal superiority led to its logical end of its superiority over other royals. Causing many land feuds, economic struggles, and religious conflicts, as were not so uncommon with their reverend saints of antiquity.

Colonization fit in the mercantilist system very nicely. Colonization meant, more land, more people, more raw materials, more war and possibly more gold! Colonies were needed when the mercantilist policy stopped working. For selling and never buying was, in the long run, an impossible prospect. Colonization took off, in order to create sub-nations that the homeland could trade with. Colonization was the creation of new markets. Under stiff government grants, and monopolies, “companies” would then look for new land to claim. But most of the colonists sent to these new lands, died soon after their arrival, either because of the humanist’s refusal to work or the inability of convicts and orphans to colonize the new world
This was the world the puritans entered into. The puritan faith was hostile to the Mercantilist policy. They believed in a bottom-up, work based economy which rendered the state helpless. So they were persecuted and forced out of the country. They fled to America and started the most successful colony Britain could produce. Mercantilism gave birth to vast empiricism, but it was only the Christian work ethic and vision that blazed the trails into the wilderness.

The puritans did not have an easy time. They were often swindled and defrauded by the corrupt business men. In addition, they still had to meet the harsh demands of the mercantilist system. Many of their successes where cut short by government regulation. Later, when the 13 colonies had been established, tobacco had become a cash crop for the American colonies. But the English disliked it, so the taxed and tariffed the blooming profit to minimal gain.

Also, because of the Mercantilist’s need to make all manufactured goods at home, the colonies were not allowed to produce anything but raw materials. Their entire way of life was shaped around the whims of the English aristocracy. They were not even allowed to make their own clothes. The final straw was burnt when the colonies legal authority, the king, gave parliament the power to tax them and place legislation over them without their consent.

Economic warfare soon erupted, between Great Britain and the flourishing American Colonies. To resist this economic tyranny, the colonies instituted their own paper dollars. The colony government had the ability to create its own currency, but all Colonial law had to be approved by the King. But this meant it couldn’t be disproved until the King vetoed it. So before the law made it to England, the colonies would force the phony merchants to be paid with their phony money. Of course, the King would veto the bill in the same month, but the colonists every month would make a new currency. Threats were soon made, and soldiers came marching into the American Colonies.

Mercantilism met its match during the War for Independence. The new United States quickly took precautions, to banish the policy from their borders, by creating a weak federal government that would serve God, instead of the elite. But the economic conflict had given the American people a taste for the paper dollar, and Mercantilism still retained its ugly head in the form of slavery and the creation of a central, state controlled bank.

Christianity was weakened by Unitarianism and the Puritan’s Post-millennialism was slowly degraded, statist economic policy crept into the American way of life. Men returned to the state as their god, and history began to repeat itself. The Northern states instituted economic regulations over the south and the Southern states promoted slavery to tip the economic scales in their favor. This resulted in Civil war and a Northern, manufacturing class dominating over the Southern farming class. By the end of Lincoln’s term, big, central government was re-instituted as societal norm and the South was subjugated under Northern rule.

Since then, we have abandoned the gold standard, implemented the income and property tax, created the Federal Reserve, forced our dollar on the rest of the world, and have been making colonies out of anyone that disagrees with us. It is true, by the beginning of the 20th century mercantilism had restated itself onto the global stage. Its new saint, John Maynard Keynes, has now indoctrinated every school across the nation with Neo-Mercantilist principles.

Keynes opponent, Murray Rothbard clearly defines mercantilism in this way. “Mercantilism, which reached its height in the Europe of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was a system of statism which employed economic fallacy to build up a structure of imperial state power, as well as special subsidy and monopolistic privilege to individuals or groups favored by the state. Thus, mercantilism held exports should be encouraged by the government and imports discouraged.”

Mercantilism is a complex scheme to rob us of our God given rights, to topple the Christian quest for dominion, and place all property under the reigns of the state. Our history is a testimony of its terrible influence, and its defenselessness when faced against a Christian minority. So let us now free ourselves from the terrible hand of Mercantilism before it is too late.