Mercantilist Warfare

In Economic Warfare: Storia Dell’arma Economica, edited by Virgilio Ilari and Giuseppe Della Torre, 59–74. Quaderno SISM 2017. Roma: Società Italiana di Storia Militare

16 Pages Posted: 17 May 2017

Date Written: May 9, 2017

Abstract

Warfare is an important and common subject in discussions on mercantilism. However, the idea of a mercantilist (type of) warfare rarely appears in the specialized literature. This article begins with a historiographical review of the uses of mercantilist warfare. It identifies mercantilist warfare has been used mostly as a name and not as a proper concept for social scientists. In the final section, I make the case for the usefulness of mercantilist warfare as a concept by providing an explicit definition and identifying four historical periods that highlight how mercantilist warfare changed over time: emergence (c.1500-c.1650), consolidation (c.1650-1815), hegemonic stability (1815-1871), and crisis (1871-1914).

Keywords: mercantilism, gunboat, naval warfare, violence

JEL Classification: N40, N43, N73, B11

Suggested Citation

Conti, Thomas, Mercantilist Warfare (May 9, 2017). In Economic Warfare: Storia Dell’arma Economica, edited by Virgilio Ilari and Giuseppe Della Torre, 59–74. Quaderno SISM 2017. Roma: Società Italiana di Storia Militare, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2968897

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