The measures were those of the late-medieval town economy applied to the wide region of the German Baltic trade, but not supported, as was the analogous mercantilist system, by a strong central government.
In spite of certain prejudices against the import of luxuries and the export of gold, there is little indication of the influence of mercantilist or protectionist ideas.
He was also one of the first in whom we find a tendency to a view of industrial phenomena which was at variance with the then dominant mercantilist ideas, and he exhibits a statesmanlike sense of the elements in which the strength of a nation really consists.
He was under the general influence of the mercantilist views, and approved of energetic governmental interference in industrial matters, of high taxes on foreign manufactures and low duties on raw materials and articles of food, and attached great importance to a dense population.