During the sixteenth, seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, in Europe, the current of philosophical and economic thought known as "mercantilism", whose base was found in pragmatism, that American philosophical school focused on the objective and real, came to the fore. Within this, the connections between political and economic power, the constant control of the State in economic affairs and the currency were stimulated; This, in the long term, allowed population growth, opened the doors to protectionism and gave regional production all the privileges necessary for its flourishing.
With the arrival of mercantilism, the classic aim of understanding economics, chrematistics, was given. It derives from a primitive way of understanding capitalism in Renaissance Italy. Mercantilists believed that a nation's prosperity could be measured by how much capital it owned; if this, on a scale, turned out to be greater than import expenditures, it was a triumphant state. To achieve this, protectionism is used, a series of measures or economic policies destined to limit imports, through the imposition of tariffs and taxes; This favors, on the contrary, exports, in addition to local production. For this reason, the State is involved in all commercial operations.
The end of mercantilism came with the arrival of the book The Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith; with an ideology capable of completely replacing it. However, other critics already pointed out certain errors in the economic doctrines proposed in mercantilism. Later, this was replaced by free trade.
