mercantilism/mercantilist---National concentration on obtaining year after year after year positive balances of trade (gold/money on hand representing the monetary value of net exports). It was a process to find the real wealth on earth in the centuries from 1500-latter 1700’s, or so it was thought. At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, the founding father of economics wrote An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations to decry this way of thinking[1]. It is interesting to note that the time period leading up to the storm called the Great Recession, another great period of globalisation, certain geographical areas kept making more and more exports of goods/services relative to imports.
[1] Smith, Adam, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the
Wealth of Nations. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,
1976