The fundamental idea associated with mercantile theory were that a government could make most of its income from the trade of products such as tobacco, cotton, coffee, sugar, gold, silver, and more. The ideas worked in some countries but miserably failed in others. Mercantile theory worked very well for Great Britain because they had the land and resources in its North American colonies and India, but they also had a well-developed society. They also had the slaves which they used as free labor to get and harvest their
