Mercantilism was one important factor that brought on the War for Independence. Apart from this mistaken theory there would likely never have been a war at all. The early Americans were British by birth and ancestry. They loved Britain and would never have considered war but for the fact that they were being treated as second-class citizens. They existed to be exploited and it was this unjust treatment that became one of the sparks that ignited the fires of independence. Mercantilism always produces evil effects: It invariably promotes "centralism" (the concentration of power in one man or entity). Under this system, the government is assumed to have the right (and responsibility) to control and direct the economic decisions of men. Mercantilism supported the idea that "everything and everyone in a country must be brought under the power of the government, and usually of one person." (Carson, A Basic History of the United States, vol. II, p. 106)