'England is a nation of shopkeepers'. Long before Napolean disdainfully paraphrased Adam Smith, British commerce had become a motor for economic growth and increased state power. This four-volume facsimile edition brings together a range of rare seventeenth- and eighteenth-century documents about the mercantile system.

General Introduction, Works Cited, Introduction, Thomas Milles, Henry Robinson, Decay of Trade. A Treatise against the Abating of Interest (1641), Thomas Violet, An Humble Declaration ... Touching the Transportation of Gold and Silver (1643), [ John Houghton], England's Great Happiness (1677), William Carter, An Alarum to England to Prevent its Destruction by the Loss of Trade and Navigation (1700), Richard Welton, The Great Advantages of Navigation and Commerce to any Nation or People (1710), Erasmus Philips, Jacob Henriques, When Trade Increases, Riches will Improve (1755), Editorial Notes