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Article: Did Europe's mercantilist empires pay? (effect of mercantilism on the economic growth of Western Europe)
- Article from:
- History Today
- Article date:
- March 1, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 History Today Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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European imperialism or the direct intrusion of power into the political, economic and social affairs of other peoples and other continents is represented in a history which goes back five centuries to the voyages of discovery and which is now almost at an end. That experience can be periodised into four phases: the long era of mercantilism, 1492-1846; the brief period of free trade which is symbolised by Britain's repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846 and which lasted down to the Great War; neo-mercantilism which marked the inter-war years; and the final phase of decolonisation and retreat from empire after 1945.
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During the mercantilist era ...