ABSTRACT
F O R E I G N T R A D E A N D BUSINESS O R G A N I Z A T I O N
The general impression of the achievement of mercantilism in the field of industrial regulation, and perhaps even more of domestic trade, is that it did not lead to much in the direction of greater internal unification, nor did it give an impetus to the positive forces which caused the great economic upheaval of the 18th and 19th centuries. But in foreign trade we find a completely different state of affairs. A picture of mercantilism which omits the regulation of foreign trade and its organization would therefore be quite misleading. The general development of the forms of enterprise was further so closely bound up with the form and regulation of foreign trade that every description must apply to both. Unfortunately this rather long chapter goes beyond the proposed subject proper, and has become a description of the general development of business organization under mercantilism : in other words, it is not limited to those aspects directly connected with mercantilism. Otherwise it would have been difficult to explain the part played by mercantilism in the general development.
