308 1st assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

308 1st assignment - Essay Example balance of payments, for the purposes of business profit, royal revenue, and economic prosperity (p.30).† It argues it achieved these ends through, tariff protection against imports; selective subsidies of production and exports; the acquisition of colonies, which provided raw materials and a workforce of settlers and native peoples at low cost, a market for the mother countrys finished goods, a monopoly of colonial trade and shipping, and a direct contribution to the power and prestige of empire; the development of naval power; and measures to minimize the cost of maintaining the domestic population, such as low agricultural prices, low wages, fisheries for cheap food, and so on. Doctrinal emphases on the utility of poverty and on the importance of gold holdings served instrumental purposes for those seeking power and profit. In considering the implications of trade in a mercantilist economic structure Thomas Mun urged industrialists in specific means of exportation. He argued that they must not only heed attention to their own needs, but develop a keen awareness of the needs of neighboring states, as this would give them a decided advantage when attempting export goods. He also urged exporters to attempt to sell their goods as cheap as possible, as this would undercut competing nations and cause the nation purchasing the goods to become further dependent on the imports; referring to this idea he wrote, â€Å"we must in this case strive to sell as cheap as possible we can, rather than to lose the utterance of such wares. For we have found of late years by good experience, that being able to sell our Cloth cheap in Turkey, we have greatly encreased the vent thereo (p.32).† He argued that exporting nations should export their goods in their own ships, as this would further increase the nationâ€℠¢s financial capital as the funds would not have to be spent on foreign vessels, likely increasing the price of the export. He believed that trade in far away nations