Mercantilism was dominant in modernized parts of Europe, and some areas in Africa from the 16th to the 19th centuries, a period of proto-industrialization, before it fell into decline, but some commentators argue that it is still practiced in the economies of industrializing countries, in the form of economic interventionism. It promotes government regulation of a nation's economy for the purpose of augmenting state power at the expense of rival national powers. High tariffs, especially on manufactured goods, were almost universally a feature of mercantilist policy.