system
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human
In the old Mercantilist world, who did nations export to if nobody wanted to import anything?

During 16th -19th century when Mercantilism dominated, a state wants to minimize imports and maximize exports. If all countries were Mercantilist, there would be nobody to buy these exports. How did this work?
gpt
Mercantilism is an ideology rather than an economic system. Not all nations could’ve exported all the time, many would have net imports. 
The idea of mercantilism must be seen in the context of the time in which it originated. The state was centralizing and organizing standing armies, hiring mercenaries and early colonial capitalism was on the rise - meaning companies under control from government and shareholders. In this time the amount of ships, military power and pageantry you could afford was directly proportional to the gold and silver in your coffers. For this reason mercantilism became a popular (political-)economic theory, stating that trade should aim for an export surplus so the coffers would fill up rather than empty. Our contemporary conception of markets and trade did not exist yet. 

So most countries did not reach the ideal of mostly exporting, just like capitalist countries today do not reach a free market ideal, because the world is messy and other interests and beliefs often take precedence over the ideological idealism.