Abstract
[T]he West has, since 1945, passed through a second long boom period of “disguised mercantilism.” The leader in self-deception on this occasion would have been, not Britain, but the new Anglo-Saxon superpower, the United States. [J. Knapp, “Economics or Political Economy?” Lloyds Bank Review, January 1973, p. 41.]
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Reference
Some writers place the turning point in the first half of the nineteenth century; for example, see R. A. Solo, The Political Authority of the Market System, Cincinnati: Southwestern, 1974, pp. 45–64. Other scholars claim that it occurred at the turn of the 20th century; for examples, see J. Weinstein, The Corporate Ideal in the Liberal State, Boston: Beacon Press, 1968, and R. H. Wiebe, The Search for Order, New York: Hill and Wang, 1967.
J. Robinson, The New Mercantilism, London: Cambridge University Press, 1966.
H. G. Johnson, ed., The New Mercantilism, New York: St. Martin’s, 1974.
J. Cobbs, ‘The New Mercantilism: Hoarding Jobs,“ Business Week, March 31, 1973, p. 38; and ‘Theo-Mercantilism in the ‘80s,” Business Week, July 9, 1979, pp. 50–54.
Since the days of the New Deal, even before, it has been commonplace for many conservatives to contend that government involvement into private affairs is an indication of “creeping socialism.” A good example of this is P. Hawley, ‘The Economics of Medical Care,“ Vital Speeches, May 1, 1949, pp. 420–425.
There are several recent publications which stress this point. See: (1) C. Tvight,America’s Emerging Fascist Economy, New Rochelle: Arlington, 1975; and (2) B. M. Gross, “Friendly Fascism, A Model for America,” Social Policy, Nov./Dec. 1970, pp. 44–52. This topic is addressed in the next chapter.
That the United States has “mixed” capitalism means a mixture of government sponsorship and the market. A summary of arrangements for this hybrid form can be found in: (1) E. Mansfield, Economics, New York: Norton, 1977, pp. 39–55; and (2) C. R. McConnell, Economics, New York: McGraw Hill, 1978, pp. 105–124.
To illustrate, in 1977 the United States Chamber of Commerce engaged in an extensive promotional campaign stressing how our “free-enterprise” economy of market, competitive arrangements is productive, efficient, and fair. However, there was little or no reference to the subsidies, protectionism, and special privileges granted by government to business.
E. E. Nemmers, Dictionary of Economics and Business, Totowa, New Jersey: Littlefield, Adams, 1959, p. 57.
See (1) G. L. Bach, Economics, Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1977, p. 443; and (2) H. C. Simons, Economic Policy for a Free Society Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1948, pp. 27–29.
F. X. Sutton, et al., The American Business Creed New York: Schrocken, 1962, pp. 2–12.
Ibid, pp. 274–302. Another more recent description of these same points can be found in The American Economic System… and Your Part In It, Washington, D.C., The Advertising Council and the U.S. Department of Commerce, 1976.
G. C. Lodge cites five parts to traditional American ideology (Lockean ideology components): (1) individualism, (2) property rights, (3 competition, (4) a limited state, and (5) scientific specialization with fragmentation. [See his The New American Ideology, New York: Knopf, 1975, pp. 75–112.]
Spokesmen from academic life, business, and government operate from the preconception that capitalism is synonymous with the quadruple coincidence. See the following sources for confirmation of this tendency: (1) J. A. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, 3rd ed., New York: Harper and Row, 1962, pp. 250–268. (2) F. von HayekThe Road to Serfdom, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1944, pp. 69–70; (3) P. A. SamuelsonEconomics, 9th ed., New York: McGraw Hill, 1973, pp. 41–52. Also see: (1) “A Primer on Profits ” Kaiser Aluminum News, Vol. 21, No. 4, 1976, pp. 11–20; (2) Today’s Economics, Xerox Educational Publications, Education Center, Columbus, Ohio, 1965, p. 5; and (3) U.S. Department of Commerce, Do You Know Your Economic ABCs? Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1963 (and also Profits and the American Economy, 1965, same series).
By 1969, the number of separate licensed occupations varied from a low of 65 in Alaska to a high of 181 in Illinois. Nineteen states had 100 or more licensed occupations. (Occupational Licensing and the Supply of Nonprofessional Manpower, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor, Manpower Administration, Manpower Research Monograph No. 11, 1969, p. 17.)
C. Wilcox, Public Policies Toward Business, Homewood: Irwin, 1966, pp. 4–13.
A. Smith, An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, New York, Modern Library, 1937, p. 423.
In the January, 1888 issue of Harper’s Magazine (as cited in W. E. Minchinton, Mercantilism: System of Expediency?, Lexington: Heath, 1969, p. vii).
G. Schmoller, The Mercantile System and Its Historical Significance, New York: Macmillan, 1897.
W. Cunningham, Growth of English Industry and Commerce I, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1905, p. 483.
E. Heckscher, “Mercantilism,” Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, New York: Macmillan, 1933, pp. 333–339.
The English edition of Heckscher’s two-volume treatise on mercantilism was published in 1935, but the original Swedish publication of it was in 1931.
Heckscher, op. cia, p. 336.
J. Viner, “Power Versus Plenty as Objectives of Foreign Policy in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries” World Politics 1948-49, pp. 10–20.
D. C. Coleman, “Eli Heckscher and the Idea of Mercantilism,” Scandinavian Economic History Review, V (1957), pp. 3–25 (as cited in J. A. Gherity, ed., Economic Thought: A Historical Anthology, New York: Random House, 1965).
The points made in this paragraph and the next one are based on (1) P. W. Buck, The Politics of Mercantilism, New York: Octagon, 1964; and (2) C. H. Wilson, Mercantilism, London: Cox and Wyman, 1958.
W. D. Grampp, ‘The Liberal Elements in English Mercantilism,“ The Quarterly Journal of Economics, LXVI, 1952, pp. 456–501.
J. M. Keynes, The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, New York: Harcourt, 1936, pp. 333–371.
The influence was probably more toward the end of the 1930s rather than during the beginning of Roosevelt’s first term. See R. Lekachman, The Age of Keynes, New York: Random House, 1966, pp. 112–130.
E. Golob, The “Isms”: A History and Evaluation, New York: Harpers, 1954, pp. 125–145.
Ibid, p. 127–128.
Ibid, p. 141.
W. Adams and H. M. Gray, Monopoly in America, New York: Macmillan, 1955.
Ibid, p. 3.
Robinson, op. cit.
J. K. Galbraith, The New Industrial State, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1967, especially Chapters II and III; and J. K. Galbraith, Economics and the Public Purpose, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1973, especially Chapters X and XVI.
Or perhaps it is a non-threatening term for “neo-fascist economy”?
A. G. Papandreou, Paternalistic Competition, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1972.
. Ibid, pp. 146–147.
Four excellent illustrations of this point are: (1) S. Bruchey, The Roots of American Economic Growth,1607–1861, New York: Harpers, 1965; (2) J. R. T. Hughs, The Governmental Habit, New York: Basic, 1977; (3) G. Kolko, The Triumph of Conservatism, Chicago: Quadrangle, 1963; and (4) R. A. Solo, The Political Authority of the Market System, Cincinnati: Southwestern, 1974.
T. S. Ashton, The Relation of Economic History to Economic Theory, as cited in A. J. Taylor, Laissez-Faire and State Intervention in Nineteenth-Century Britain, London: Anchor, 1972, pp. 62–63.
An excellent discussion of Jeffersonian democracy can be found in: (1) J. S. Bain, Industrial Organization, New York: Wiley, 1968, pp. 35–38; and in T. R. Dye and L. H. Zeigler, The Irony of Democracy, 3rd ed., North Scituate: Duxbury, 1975, pp. 70–74.
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Peterson, R.D. (1991). Mercantilism. In: Political Economy and American Capitalism. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3874-1_6
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