(The European Enlightenment Glossary: capitalism) Mercantilism is referred to ".as the distribution of goods in order to realize a profit. Goods are bought at one site for a certain price and moved to another site and sold at a higher price." (The European Enlightenment Glossary: capitalism) .

             The spread of mercantilism was to follow the growth and development of the Roman Empire. While European cultures were to show a tendency towards localization and a reduction of mercantilism due to the decline of the Roman Empire, the Arab cultures on the other hand ".had a long history of mercantilism, living as they did on the trade routes between three great empires: Egypt, Persia, and later Byzantium." (The European Enlightenment Glossary: capitalism) This was to impact on Medieval Europe which was later to absorb the praxis and principles of mercantilism from the Arab nations. This is evidenced by ".the number of economic terms in European languages that are derived from Arabic, such as tariff and traffic." (The European Enlightenment Glossary: capitalism).

             This in turn was to result in the rapid expansion of mercantilism in the European culture in the 1300's, and was to be directly responsible for the voyages of discovery and expansion that took place and which had such an important effect on European and world history. .

             Mercantilism was to develop into capitalism in time. There are obvious similarities between the two economic and social models. Mercantilism provided the basic foundations of principle and impetus for capitalism in that it was ". the large-scale realization of a profit by acquiring goods for lower prices than one sells them." (The European Enlightenment Glossary: capitalism).

             However the evolution of capitalism from mercantilism is seen in their essential differences. These include the following aspects which refer to the historic foundations of capitalism.

             The accumulation of the means of production (materials, land, tools) as property into a few hands.