ABSTRACT
The theories and practices underlying economic policies in the early modern age come under the broad definition of mercantilism, a term that has been used in different ways. Definition of the concept of mercantilism has been greatly influenced by the historical context. After a brief overview of the historical context, this chapter provides a short and inevitably schematic summary of the central ideas and basic aims of what is generally meant by mercantilism. It looks briefly at the authors and economic debates which provided a new and better understanding of economics and its related concepts. Mercantilism also underlay collective thought that began to see the economy as a system with its own laws. The two aspects of mercantilism were inseparable in practice and in contemporary conceptualisation: it was both a system designed to strengthen power and a system aimed at increasing wealth.
