MERCANTILISM

historically, we see a pattern of government intervention in the birth of capitalism. Very simply put, wealth accumulation that drove the industrial/capitalist revolution in Europe, was very much due to colonization and the trade profits that ensued. Profits from the 3 addictions we have today -sugar, tobacco and coffee - (if we can call coffee an addiction!) were highly profitable based on the new maritime technology, and profits were ploughed into emerging industries. The new maritime efforts were encouraged by the British monarchy in the 17th century, particularly King Charles II, who set up all kinds of technological societies for scientists, and also, allowed merchant ships to fly under the British flag. Sailing around the world entailed devising a way of telling time uniformly. This is how Greenwich Mean Time was established, something we use all the time today to coordinate our activities globally across geographic space. Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) originally referred to the mean solar time at the Royal Observa1tory in Greenwich, London.
This comes under the theory of 'mercantilism'....the protection of trade in its early days in the 16-17th centuries.

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