With decline in religion and the power of the Church, the accumulation of wealth comes to be seen as a normal motivation for the activities of men. Professor Heckscher in Mercantilism, 1935, assesses 17th century mercantilism as a force for political unification and the nation state. The economic devices of state intervention are merely tools towards that end. A more economic interpretation has the emergence of commerce from feudalism sponsoring policies to protect the trading interests of merchants.

Under Mercantilism, monopoly and protection are seen as key features to be fostered by the state. Money is now identified as wealth. The Mercantilists argued that money has an active role in creating wealth, contradicting the position of the Canonists who held that money itself was not capable of producing wealth. The accumulation of physical goods is now secondary to the accumulation of money. Selling goods becomes a priority since it accumulates 'treasure' (gold and silver money), and since accumulation of treasure is good, the converse, achieved through the buying of goods, must be bad. (This view can also be seen in the idea that the surplus arises where goods are sold above their value, hence to buy goods is to give away that surplus to someone else). It is also proposed that interest rates should be low in order to help merchants finance their trade. This period is one of commercial capitalism.

Serra
Italian mercantilist. He proposes that the realm should abound in gold, and that home industry should be encouraged.

Gerald Malynes
Mercantilist and Bullionist. Author of Saint George for England Allegorically Described 1601. Malynes highlights the importance of money as wealth, for he believes that if money is scarce then commerce declines. Malynes abhorred the import of luxury goods and attacked interest.

Misselden
Writes Free Trade, or the Meanes to Make Trade Flourish, 1662. Highlights the importance of monetary wealth, and advances the idea that trade should be preserved within Christendom in order to preserve 'treasure'. He argues for compilation of balance of trade statistics and allocation of labourers to those areas in which the country has a deficit.

Thomas Mun
1571-1641. A Discourse of Trade from England to the East Indies, 1621. Aim of policy should be to increase treasure through the trade surplus, but re-investment of treasure in trade and commerce is also vital. England's Treasure by Forraign Trade, 1630, is a definitive work on commercial capitalism. Mun espouses foreign trade and the merchant. He defines the 'stock of wealth' and the resultant growth of wealth from such investment. Money, says Mun, is analogous with the farmers' seeds.

Johann Joachim Becker
German mercantilist. Proposes that it is always better to sell goods than to buy them, for the former brings advantage and the latter inevitable damage.

D'Avenant
Discourses on the Public Revenues 1697. Proposes that only foreign selling brings a net addition to wealth. Says that only natural and artificial resources of land and labour produce monetary wealth.

Sir Thomas Culpepper.
Tract against Usury 1621. Argues against Mun on usury. Culpepper is for a limit on the maximum rate of interest so as to allow English merchants to compete more successfully with the Dutch (who paid approximately 6% at the time).

Sir Josiah Child
New Discourse of Trade 1669. Child argues that if commerce enriches the country and low interest rates encourage commerce, then low interest rates must be a cause of increased wealth. He is pro trade surplus and jobs. He is also against a high rate of interest, but not against interest itself. A high rate of interest encouraged men to send their money to the goldsmith rather than use it in trade. To be able to compete with the Dutch, the interest rate must be no higher in England than in Holland.

Thomas Manley
Interest of Money Mistaken. Unlike Child, low interest rate is the result, not the cause, of increased wealth. Sides with Mun on usury argument. If there is a great amount of wealth then there will be a lot of money available and 'plenty of money and few borrowers will make the rate of interest low'