ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that English mercantilists stimulated the development of a distinct mercantile ideology that was closely tied to emerging notions of national interest. It was given shape in pamphlet literature and soon carried great weight as an operational term in politics. Mercantilist ideology was a crucial element of the three seventeenth-century Anglo-Dutch wars. English mercantilists managed to create an ideological connection between economic issues, patriotic pride and national interest. In England, economic interest groups were often divided on points of mercantilist theory. The New London Merchants cooperated with the Rump and gained considerable influence in economic policy-making. The Act of Navigation was the most important result of their involvement in politics. In Africa the Dutch West-Indische Compagnie attempted to eliminate all foreign competition in order to pursue its trade in gold, slaves and ivory. In the Dutch Republic, economic interest was an essential component of the republican ideology of the period of True Freedom.
