England’s Mercantilism: Trading Companies, Employment and the Politics of Trade in Global History, 1688–1704

Abstract A close study of how the status of trading companies changed after 1688 demonstrates that mercantilist decision-making was a more widespread, more national process than is commonly assumed. English manufacturers and merchants looked to the state to support them in an increasingly global economy. Parliament’s position as the key decision-making institution helped turn London into an ‘open archive’ of pamphlets, petitions and correspondence that became the basis for mercantilist policy. In this chaotic debate between private interests, domestic employment was considered the primary objective of wider English participation in the global economy, and those English producers who could claim to be employing others were valued particularly highly. The role of the wider English nation in shaping the global impact of the state suggests the need for a fuller exploration of the role of mercantilism in early modern global history.