How did mercantilism affect the economies of great britain and the american colonies?

Mercantilism was a policy whereby nations sought to increase their wealth by trading goods around the world in return for gold and silver. Countries like Great Britain sought to create wealth to support their military efforts by exporting goods around the world and in turn not importing goods. This impacted their policies with the colonies by gaining natural resources and new markets in the colonies to export goods to in order to grow wealth for the British Government.