The term comes from the word "bullion" which means ingot, introduced in the mercantilist thought of the Modern Age. Specifically, thebullionismo It is an economic theory that measures the wealth of a country depending on the amount of precious metals it has.
Likewise, bullionism is a mercantilist current and recognizes other variants similar to it. That is, while bullionism measures the amount of wealth in the country through precious metals that it has such as gold and silver, other countries do so with other denominations. For example, Colbertism is French mercantilism.
Characteristics of bullionism
Among the main characteristics of bullionism:
- Accumulation of wealth through precious metals (gold and silver), so that the countries were responsible for increasing the exports and reduce imports, making the balance of trade is positive and the number of precious metals is high.
- For countries where there are no mines and you cannot get such metals, the way to get rich was through manufacturing and trade.
- Gold was considered a universally appreciated and acclaimed material, serving as an immediate means to obtain other goods. Gold was a symbol of wealth.
Among the advantages of bullionism, we highlight the increase or expansion of the oferta monetary, favoring commercial transactions and reducing barter, since it was more comfortable and convenient to exchange for these materials.
Among the disadvantages of this theory, we highlight the increase in the inflation in some countries, especially due to the entry of materials, which made the prices of goods and services more expensive.