By increasing exports and decreasing imports, countries hoped to?
a) obtain a favorable balance of trade and increase the gold and silver coming into their country.
b) spend their supplies of gold and silver.
c) make other countries wealthy too.
d) make lives for their colonists easier.

The correct answer is A)  obtain a favorable balance of trade and increase the gold and silver coming into their country.

By increasing exports and decreasing imports, countries hoped to obtain a favorable balance of trade and increase the gold and silver coming into their country.

As part of the Columbian exchange, many goods were traded and exported from the American colonies to Europe. The American colonies had raw materials and natural resources that European countries needed to manufacture and then, they returned elaborated products to the Americas. The colonies exported tobacco, indigo, rice, cotton, and sugar, trying to obtain a favorable balance of trade and increase the gold and silver coming into their colonies.