Did british mercantilism provide the colonies with substantial economic benefits such as military protection?

Answer 1

Military protection is not an economic benefit. While it does benefit the economy to have military protection, defense policy is usually considered separate from actual economic regulation, such as: international trade policy, local trade policy, taxation, employment, support for entrepreneurship, mobility of workers, worker's rights, etc.

Given that economic benefits and military protection are two separate entities, there are really two questions here: Did British mercantilism provide the colonies with (1) substantial benefits like military protection or (2) substantial economic benefits?

(1) Did British mercantilism provide the colonies with substantial benefits like military protection?
YES. Part of British Mercantilism was to provide for the defense of the colonies both against threats from Native American Tribal Groups and other European Powers. The British were also responsible for the general security of the colonial administration. While colonists were responsible for managing the day-to-day police work and governance, the benefit conferred by the British maintaining a troop presence in the colonies helped secure the region immensely.

(2) Did British mercantilism provide the colonies with substantial economic benefits?
NO. According to mercantilism as imposed by the British, the colonies were required to engage in two general behaviors: (1) The colonies were locked into exclusive trade between the colonies and the metropole and were not allowed to trade with any other nation or colony. (2) No manufactures or complex goods could be made in the colonial territory. As a result the colonies would provide wealth to the metropole by trading their Natural Resources for less than they would be worth and by buying manufactures for much more money. These actions severely hampered the ability for colonists to trade with third parties for cheaper goods or create domestic industry. The colonists actually went out of their way to smuggle in goods from afar and create their own small domestic manufactures. If the British rules were actually followed it would have kept the colonies in a state of economic dependence on Britain.