I'm agreeing with you. In the early stages, mercantilism and doing it for the crown was the driving force. Hence colonialism. In time, though, individuals began to see they could both enrich the crown and line their own pockets as well. I looked at a number of sources, and they are all over the place. Pinpointing something like that is difficult since a venture can both increase the wealth of a nation as well as the private entrepreneur, even if it is done on the sly.