CLEP Western Civ I

Answer: B - Mercantilism, which was what drove the Commercial Revolution, is an economic theory in which the primary goal of a nation is to generate as much revenue as possible. In a mercantilist economy, the state wants to acquire raw resources as cheaply as possible, manufacture the resources into as many goods as possible at the lowest possible cost, limit their citizens to buying domestic goods and sell more goods abroad than they buy. Exploring or colonizing lands with abundant resources that can be acquired easily (cheaply) ultimately becomes an aspect of the economy. Tariffs keep imported goods more expensive than domestic goods, ensuring that local citizens are more likely to buy domestic products. At the end of the Commercial Revolutions, the theories of free trade and capitalism started to become popular and eventually replaced mercantilism as the preferred economic structure.