Today, mercantilism is typically dismissed as an archaic and blatantly erroneous set of ideas about economic policy. And, in their heyday, mercantilists certainly did defend some very odd notions, chief among which was the view that national policy ought to be guided by the accumulation of precious metals – gold and silver.
对当今的经济政策看来，重商主义通常被视为陈旧及完全错误的一套思想。当然，在其鼎盛时期，重商主义确实维护了某些非常奇怪的观念，其中最主要的一个观点就是国家政策应该致力于贵金属——黄金和白银——的积累。