David YanMr. Jack CarterUniversity English II6 April 2014Thomas Mun's theory of mercantilism and its effects on the American coloniesAn unmistakable tension fills the air of a small Boston residence on a warm summer evening. In every town hall in the American colonies there are loud complaints about the recently passed Molasses Act and all its substitutes, including the Sugar and Stamp Acts. These acts, descendants of the mercantilist “Navigation Acts” passed by the British Parliament in 1650, were put in place to help Britain recover from devastating losses in the Seven Years' War. These acts threatened to cripple the Colonies' already weak economy and adversely affect the export power of New England ports, as molasses and rum producers would have to charge higher prices for products that already had a slim profit margin. and high competition. . The colonists, realizing this threat, banded together as the slogan “No Taxation Without Representation” echoed throughout the colonies. The Molasses, Sugar, and Stamp Acts, products of Thomas Mun's theory of mercantilism, served as the last straw for the colonies that would mark the beginning of the American Revolution. More importantly, these acts marked the beginning of the end of mercantilism, an economic mentality that dominated the economies of Europe's largest nations for two centuries. Britain's powerful mercantilist economic policy controlled every aspect of British trade until it was finally abandoned when restrictive mercantilist trade laws led the leaders of the American colonies to declare the need for equal representation, followed by the events of the American Revolution which led to the end of mercantilism .The theory of mercantilism follows...... half of the document ......on the official trade relations between the American colonies and the Spanish colonies in Peru. France implemented similar economic policies, as Marie-Jeanne Rossignol pointed out: “An edict issued in August 1784, which was intended to open up more trade opportunities for Americans in the French Caribbean.” Through this new edict, the French freed their West Indian ports from simply supplying raw materials for mainland France to allowing the colonies to become an independent trading port. Great Britain also joined, as the consequences of the independence of the North American colonies also forced the British to reconsider their exclusive monopoly on colonial policy. Similar edicts and trade relations were opened throughout the rest of Europe. Soon after the American Revolution, European colonial mercantilism collapsed. Mercantilism proved to have its own