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Many of the colonies did make this work, and work well.  An [[economic]] system called [[mercantilism]] began to develop in the 1600s and 1700s, which would lay the foundation for capitalism in the 1800s.<ref>http://mars.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/wc2/lectures/mercantilism.html</ref>

Many of the colonies did make this work, and work well.  An [[economic]] system called [[mercantilism]] began to develop in the 1600s and 1700s, which would lay the foundation for capitalism in the 1800s.<ref>http://mars.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/wc2/lectures/mercantilism.html</ref>

The basic concept of mercantilism is to limit imports from foreign countries (not including colonies), and maximize exports to everyone (including colonies), in order to maximize the "trade surplus" (the amount by which receipts exceeds expenses).  Colonies played an important role in this system by supplying raw materials at low cost to the mother country (e.g., England or France), which could then use the materials to produce low-cost finished products that could be sold to the world.<ref>http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Mercantilism.html</ref>  By selling more than the country buys, it could accumulate a surplus in money (gold) and become wealthier.

The basic concept of mercantilism is to limit imports from foreign countries (not including colonies), and maximize exports to everyone (including colonies), in order to maximize the "trade surplus" (the amount by which receipts exceeds expenses).  Colonies played an important role in this system by supplying raw materials at low cost to the mother country (e.g., England or France), which could then use the materials to produce low-cost finished products that could be sold to the world.<ref>http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Mercantilism.html</ref>  By selling more than the country buys, it could accumulate a surplus in money (gold) and become wealthier.  In other words, mercantilism was an economic system in which the colonies existed to give raw materials to mother country (England), and buy her finished products, so that England could export more than it imported and thereby increase its gold reserves from a surplus in the balance of trade.

But there's no free lunch, and these European nations were all-too-happy to use slavery to do the back-breaking work of gathering the raw materials, such as crops and minerals.  A slave trade developed to bring blacks from Africa to the New World in order to work the plantations for the settlers from [[England]] and other European powers.

But there's no free lunch, and these European nations were all-too-happy to use slavery to do the back-breaking work of gathering the raw materials, such as crops and minerals.  A slave trade developed to bring blacks from Africa to the New World in order to work the plantations for the settlers from [[England]] and other European powers.