ABSTRACT
To some point the enduring interest that economists, economic historians and historians of economic thought have taken in the topic of ‘mercantilism’ is baffling. Hence a lively debate concerning its interpretation opened up more than a hundred years ago-and has been going on ever since. Using a term invented by the Physiocrats in the 18th century the discussants have focused both on the ideas and the events of mercantilism; on the intellectual core ideas as well as on economic policies. And the subject still arouses interest. In the 1980s new contributions to the scholarly debate have been published.1 Obviously, the question of how to interpret ‘mercantilism’, or to understand concepts like ‘the favourable balance of trade’, can still serve as targets for professional careers and to arouse recognition within the scholarly world.
