Answer:
The economic system prevailing in Europe in the 1500s and 1600s which favored a balance of exports over imports with a focus of wealth measure by gold and silver was mercantilism.
Step-by-step explanation:
It is called mercantilism to a set of political and economic ideas of great pragmatism that were developed during the sixteenth, seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth century in Europe. It was characterized by a strong State intervention in the economy, coinciding with the development of monarchical absolutism.
It consisted of a series of measures that focused on State intervention in the economy and the control of the currency. Thus, they tended to the state regulation of the economy, the unification of the internal market, the growth of population, the increase of own production - controlling natural resources and foreign and domestic markets, protecting local production from foreign competition, subsidizing private companies and creating privileged monopolies-, the imposition of tariffs on foreign products and the increase of the money supply -through the prohibition of exporting precious metals and inflationary coinage-, always with a view to the multiplication of fiscal revenues. These actions had the ultimate goal of forming the nation-state as strong as possible.