Mercantilism (Civ3)/The Middle Ages/Civilopedia

Mercantilism came into being shortly after the medieval states of Europe became true nation-states. It is an economic worldview holding that all economic exchange is 
zero-sum (meaning that in any trade, there is a winner and a loser). According to mercantilism national governments needed to tightly control foreign trade and employment, and 
aggressively pursue colonies and foreign markets to profitably sell manufactured goods. Finally, mercantilism was associated with the idea that wealth was identical with 
stocks of gold and silver, or whatever was used as currency in a given economy. Mercantilism endured until the 18th century, when Adam Smith and the classical liberals of England and 
France set forth a series of devastating criticisms.