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Trade Mercantilism Drawing Ideas for a History Class

One picture that shows mercantilism and the part of the idea it explains: a map, cartoon, port or poster.

Trade Mercantilism Drawing Ideas for a History Class

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  1. A one-way toll gate at a harbor mouthExports sail out free; imports stop and pay. High tariffs fell hardest on manufactured goods.

Next step More cartoons, each with its one exaggeration

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Maps and diagrams 12

  • A balance scale with exports heavier than imports A trade surplus: the country sells more than it buys. Crates on the low pan, a few on the high one.
  • A bar chart with a tall export bar and a short import bar Maximize exports, minimize imports. Two bars, and a dotted line across the gap labeled surplus.
  • A chart of sea lanes where every ship flies one flag The Navigation Acts kept colonial trade in English and colonial ships. Repeat one small flag on every mast.
  • A cycle diagram: buy raw, make at home, sell abroad Import raw materials, finish them at home, sell the goods abroad for gold. Three boxes in a ring, coins in the middle.
  • A flow chart from sheep to wool to cloth to coins Finished goods are worth more than raw materials. Four boxes in a row, each a little bigger than the last.
  • A mother country as a hub with spokes out to its colonies Colonies were forbidden to trade with other nations. Every spoke ends at the hub.
  • A nation drawn as a jar filling with gold and silver coins Bullionism measured a nation's wealth by the gold and silver it held. One arrow in, none out.
  • A route from Europe to a colony that bends through one port The Staple Act of 1663: European goods bound for the colonies had to be shipped through an English port first.
  • A timeline strip from 1651 to 1849 with five ship icons The first Navigation Act came in 1651; the acts were repealed in 1849. One ship for each act of the 1600s.
  • A world map with gold arrows all pointing at one country The aim was a favorable balance of trade that brought gold and silver in. Every arrowhead points home.
  • The triangular trade as three labeled routes on a map Trade between three regions. Label each leg as a textbook map does, the Middle Passage among them.
  • Two ocean arrows: raw goods out, finished goods back Colonies sent raw materials and bought manufactured goods. Make the returning arrow the thicker one.

Cartoons and metaphors 12

  • A colony as a farm cart on a road with every turn fenced off Colonies could not sell to other nations. Side roads are fenced; one signpost points to the home port.
  • A dragon asleep on a hoard labeled national wealth The system counted wealth in precious metal. Critics answered that wealth is made by work, not piled up.
  • A giant magnet on a cargo ship pulling coins over the waves Exports pull gold and silver home. Draw the coins in a line that curves toward the magnet.
  • A merchant ship wearing a crown State and merchants worked together: chartered trading companies sailed under the government's protection.
  • A one-way toll gate at a harbor mouth Exports sail out free; imports stop and pay. High tariffs fell hardest on manufactured goods.
  • A pie that cannot grow, cut by rival kings Mercantilists saw trade as a zero-sum game: a bigger slice for one meant a smaller slice for another.
  • A piggy bank shaped like a kingdom with a guard at the slot Laws banned sending gold and silver abroad, even to pay bills. The coin goes in and stays in.
  • A price tag growing taller beside a growing pile of gold A critic's point: as bullion flows in, prices at home rise and exports get harder to sell.
  • A seesaw of two nations: one rises as the other sinks One country's gain was held to be its partner's loss. Two figures, one plank, one pivot.
  • A tree with roots under the sea and coins for fruit Colonies fed the mother country raw materials. Roots reach the far shore; the fruit hangs at home.
  • Two shopkeepers who both want to sell and neither to buy Not every country can sell more than it buys. Two counters face each other, both tills empty.
  • Two taps over one tub: exports wide open, imports dripping Encourage exports and restrain imports. The whole policy in two faucets and a rising water line.

Ports, ships and customs houses 12

  • A barrel of molasses with one coin leaning on it The Molasses Act of 1733 taxed molasses from non-British colonies six pence a gallon. One barrel, one coin.
  • A customs house on a quay with barrels lined up at its door The government office in a seaport where duty on imported goods was collected. Columns, a flag, a scale.
  • A customs officer chalking a mark on a barrel A tariff is a tax on imports, paid by the importer. A ledger under one arm, chalk in the other hand.
  • A cutaway hold stacked with sugar, indigo and cotton The first enumerated goods included sugar, cotton wool, indigo and ginger. Label each layer of the hold.
  • A dock scale: a crate on one pan, a few coins on the other Customs duty was collected on imported goods at the port. The coins are the government's share.
  • A foreign ship anchored outside a harbor full of masts As a rule the acts barred foreign ships from the trade. One hull outside, a row of masts inside.
  • A merchant ship taking on barrels of sugar Sugar was an enumerated good: it could be shipped only to England or another English colony.
  • A ship's stern with one very large flag The acts kept foreign ships out of the trade, so a ship's nationality mattered. Make the flag the biggest shape.
  • A shipyard slip with a half-planked hull A French finance minister paid bounties to shipbuilders. Bare ribs on one side, planks on the other.
  • A warehouse with doors open to the dock on both sides An entrepôt is a port where goods are imported, stored and exported again. Crates in, crates out.
  • Four sailors' hats in a row, three of them alike The acts required English and colonial mariners for 75% of a crew: three hats in every four.
  • Ships leaving low in the water and coming home riding high Full holds going out, light ones coming back: exports up, imports down. Show it at the waterline.

One-page poster layouts 12

  • A before-and-after strip dated 1651 and 1849 Left, a harbor of one flag under the first Navigation Act. Right, many flags after the repeal.
  • A board-game path from field to port to workshop to shop A tariff is a tax on imports. Squares on a winding track, and one that says: pay the duty, miss a turn.
  • A book cover dated 1776 with a pin through a money bag The Wealth of Nations, 1776, criticized what its author named the mercantile system. Design its cover.
  • A definition card: one sentence above one small cargo ship Write it plainly: a system to enrich a country by restraining imports and encouraging exports.
  • A four-box comic: grow, ship, make, sell back Colonies supplied raw materials and bought the manufactured goods back. One box for each step of the loop.
  • A recipe card for a rich kingdom Ingredients: colonies, ships, tariffs. Method: sell more than you buy. Serves one country.
  • A rules poster of four numbered scrolls The policies as rules: tax imports, subsidize exports, use our own ships, keep the gold at home.
  • A split poster: colony on the left, home on the right Colonies supplied raw materials; home made the goods. Fields on one side, workshops on the other, two arrows.
  • A T-chart of who gains: mother country and colony Home gets raw materials and buyers; the colony gets a sure market and few choices. Two columns.
  • A title in rope lettering over one big coin chest Letter the word across the top. Below it, a chest: a nation's wealth was counted in gold and silver.
  • A two-voice poster: a 1600s merchant and a 1700s critic One bubble says sell more than we buy. The other says the world's wealth is not fixed; work creates it.
  • A word web with gold at the center Five spokes: exports, tariffs, colonies, ships, monopolies. One small icon at the end of each.

How it works

Mercantilism is hard to draw because it is a rule and not a thing: sell more than you buy, and keep the gold. These trade mercantilism drawing ideas each turn one part of that rule into a picture.

Read the full guide

Mercantilism drawing ideas, four ways

Maps and diagrams show the flow: raw materials out of a colony, finished goods back, gold toward home. Cartoons and metaphors make the argument, such as a pie that cannot grow. Ports, ships and customs houses are the places where the rules were applied. One-page poster layouts arrange a whole assignment.

Say which part your picture shows

The line under each idea says what it shows: the favorable balance of trade, the Navigation Acts, a tariff, the zero-sum view. Put that phrase in your caption, so a reader can see what the drawing explains.

  • Label the arrows. Raw materials one way and finished goods the other is what makes two arrows mercantilism.
  • On the triangular trade map, label each route by name, as a textbook map does, and draw no figures.

Questions and answers

What is mercantilism in simple terms?

An economic system that tried to enrich a country by restraining imports and encouraging exports, so that gold and silver flowed in. It shaped Western European policy from the sixteenth century to the late eighteenth.

How do you draw mercantilism?

Draw a flow. Two arrows across an ocean, raw goods out and finished goods back, is the plainest version. A balance with exports heavier than imports shows the goal in one object.

What were the Navigation Acts?

A series of English laws, the first in 1651, that kept colonial trade in English and colonial ships and sent certain goods, such as sugar and indigo, only to England or its colonies. They were repealed in 1849.

What is a favorable balance of trade?

Exporting a greater value of goods than a country imports, also called a trade surplus. Mercantilists wanted one because it was thought to bring gold and silver into the country.

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