How will mercantilism affect the European empire?

Mercantilism essentially was a zero-sum gain mentality towards economics. Basically, this meant that there was only so much gold to go around, so countries were constantly involved in a game of trying to get each other's gold. Country A gained, so long as Country B lost. 

This affected the way European kingdoms approached trade, because they constantly saw themselves as if they were in competition to obtain gold and silver, as opposed to creating wealth....

Mercantilism essentially was a zero-sum gain mentality towards economics. Basically, this meant that there was only so much gold to go around, so countries were constantly involved in a game of trying to get each other's gold. Country A gained, so long as Country B lost. 

This affected the way European kingdoms approached trade, because they constantly saw themselves as if they were in competition to obtain gold and silver, as opposed to creating wealth. Thus, military proved important to keep imports low and exports high. This drove kingdoms to pursue irrational economic policies, such as creating huge tariffs to protect their own gold and to gain more of another's. But if every country was exporting but not importing, how could they continue? They couldn't. This ultimately led to stagnation and economic stalemate.

But this aspect of mercantilism was also responsible for the push for greater conquests as countries could produce more food and not have to rely on imports. Colonies became an important part of this equation and were seen as key to the continuation of high tariffs. However, the focus on gold and silver also created problems for the colonies themselves. It is here that we see the introduction of paper currency, which brought inevitable problems of corruption (such as forgeries).

Another key element was the rise of the corporation, which acted as an extension of nations but with the ability to wage war. Think of IBM with a standing army and tasked with expanding trade abroad, and you have an idea of what this meant for colonialism and the growth of empires.