Mercantilism Today

Many years ago, a foreigner stumbled upon a stranger while walking down the road.  The two had a pleasant discussion and ended by trading wheat and cotton.  This marked the first known trade.  Since then, the art of trading has become a common act.   People, supplies, and food, among many other things are traded each day throughout the world.

When you're cleaning your room and stumble upon a baseball card, you might think to yourself,  “Wow this could be worth some money!”   Fortunately, you can get an immediate value of the card at your local sports memorabilia shop.  There are many things that can be traded such as jewelry, coins, and other valuable objects.  If you have a piece of jewelry you do not wear, you can go to a pawn shop and exchange the jewelry for cash.  Making trades at pawn shops has become so popular that the History Channel recently released a television show called "Pawn Stars".  This show walks you through the day of store owners and their journey through the business.   

Retail trade is form of trading. This consists of the sale of goods from a place such as a store or mail order.  When you exchange cash for a product at mall, this is considered a retail trade. Wholesale trade is defined as the sale of goods sold to retailer.  A retailer needs to purchase products prior to selling them to the public.  This is considered a wholesale trade.

In the sports world, players from all teams are constantly being traded.  The NHL, NFL, MLB and NBA all use trading.  Over this past summer, the Boston Bruins of The NHL traded one of their star forwards, Tyler Seguin.  In exchange, they got three players including two that are stars on the team right now.  Many teams have to take risks when trading because they don't know whether or not it will work out.   Over the past off season, the Boston Celtics, traded away two franchise players who have been on the team for many years.  Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett were traded so the team could start rebuilding with younger players.  Sports franchises are constantly making trades to improve their teams.

There are trades occurring daily within the United States government.  Recently, there has been discussions about the US trading nuclear weapons to Japan. There is a trade representative from each country who negotiates the transaction.  In the US, the representative is Michael Fromam.  According to census.gov, as of November 2013, the biggest US trading partner is Canada.  The US imports 305.4 goods and exports 277 per year with Canada.  As you see, trading is an enormous part of our nation’s government.

Trading today relates to class by the topic of “Mercantilism”.  The Spanish conquers thought that trade generated wealth, so they would trade along there way.  This topic goes back to the Columbian exchange.  The Columbian exchange refers to the exchange of diseases, ideas, foods,crops and population between new world and old world. One of the most important items they traded was tobacco.  If today, the most important and poplar item trade is money, back then it was tobacco.  Mercantillism and trading today connect with each other and is a big idea that doesn’t receive recognition by todays society.

Trading continues to be a part of the economic function.  It happens so much and so often in everyday life.  If it wasn't for what happened so many years ago when the first trade was made, who knows if it would have ever started.