Juan Esteban Cardona López

English IV
Independent Work

The Origin of the Mercantilism.

The Mercantilism was a particular moment of economic process in the History that had
its origins in the Renaissance, but for understanding its importance and the reason of its
beginning is necessary get back to the Middle Age even is important to make allusion to
the Roman Empire.
When occidental Roman Empire (centered in Rome, current Italy) was involved in a
fragmentation due to Germanic tribes that invaded and took the imperial lands and later
ended up founding independent kingdoms, this make disappear slowly and it took the
empire to the ruin. The cities then became in chaotic places and forced then people to
move to the rural areas, with this process the mercantile ruts collapsed and all the
commerce of the occidental world fell with the empire. This transformed Europe into
the famous Feudal system, when appeared the figure of the countess and dukes, who
were military members of the Roman society, now they would be the protectors of the
villagers that would work to feed their lords in exchange of protection.
It was a lot of time before the commerce appeared again, Europe had a progressive
demonetarizing until the Muslim invasion put in circulation coins of gold, but the
commerce in the Middle Age was non-existent. The Black Death in XIV century is
important to understand the change in the mentality of the medieval people and
understand the reason of the beginning of Renaissance and the slowly exit of Middle
Age. The plague killed 3/5 parts of the population of the moment, one painting of the
Renaissance called “The Triumph of the Death” illustrates all the members of the
pyramidal society (Nobility, Clergy and Servants) dying because of the pest and you can
see the war like endemic problem that make the pest be most powerful and deathly.
After of the chaos caused for the pest, the survivors started to see the world with other
eyes and letting the religiously life relegate to a second field, which is the explanation of
the historiography about the start of the Humanism, God is taken it out of the terrene
life and the humanity start to searching to itself. Now we have the factors of a
Renaissance society, and we can understand why the bourgeois appeared in State cities
of the Italian Boot, the relative peace and prosperity in century XV allowed these people
that did not belong to noble to give pass to the mercantilism.
The bourgeois (so called because they lived outside of the walls of the medieval cities)
in started to commerce with the oriental world, the people of Genoa, Florence and
Venice (Italian State cities) were the pioneers of the capitalism selling and trading sink
manufactures, spices, art and other things making some money and saving it by creating
the banks. This is the origin of mercantilism that will be improved at large in the
century XVI and XVII.