ABSTRACT
Once again, economic relationships between the metropolitan state and its imperial territories could take on a variety of forms. Abernethy (2000: 57-63), for instance, has noted how economic relationships within empires could be organised either vertically or horizontally. Vertical economic relationships were part of the classic mercantile ideology, prevalent from the sixteenth century to the eighteenth, where trade occurred solely between the metropolitan state and its colonial territories. Raw materials, such as precious metals and spices, were extracted from imperial lands and served to increase the financial resources of the metropolitan state. Semi-finished products, such as luxury clothing materials and porcelain, also flowed from the Americas and Asia to the European metropolitan centres. Importantly, this was a two-way flow of trade, as European states exported raw materials and manufactured goods to their peripheral lands.
