Essay On Mercantilism, Capitalism, And Socialism

Mercantilism was an economic system which existed between the times 1492 to 1700. France, England, Spain and Portugal were increasingly being unified. Power was much centralized, thus the governments of these nations has to find a way to inflate their power. The mercantilists perceived that national power implied wealth, which was understood as acquiring silver and wealth. The mercantilists had the opinion that government must control the wealth of the country and should invest it in public projects or works. Thus, it is a nationalist type of early capitalism characterized by the interlacing of the business interest of the nation to imperialism and state-interests.
On the other hand, capitalism is an economic system in which the capital assets are majorly controlled or owned by individuals, labor is acquired for money wages, there are accruals of capital gains to proprietors and the pricing strategy is used to allot capital goods between utilizations. Capitalism as an economic system emerged out of the conception that wealth not only about the money one has; the wealthiest individuals are the people who can make a lot of money with their possessions. In the course of the 17th and 18th centuries, the need to have knowledge and savings, pushed many barbers, blacksmith and educated landlords to start looking for better tools, machines, invention and medical ideas. It brought about the idea that the government should not engage in making rules for businesses or pricing decisions, instead demand and supply should be the deciding factors.
Lastly socialism as an economic system emerged as a result of the problems brought about by capitalism. Various people including Karl Marx started documenting on the new economic systems, socialism in which the government regulated businesses, created worker’s right and offered various public services such as unemployment benefits, housing, education, healthcare and sanitation. These economic systems are intermingled to a greater extent in our present day world in that socialism and capitalism are the driving principles of government and businesses. Government in some way regulate businesses, providing the fundamental public services while demand and supply primarily determine the pricing strategies for businesses. Mercantilism also plays an important role in the present day governments; countries acquire wealth by trading with other countries and accumulate it in order to invest in public projects.