Jean-Baptiste Colbert
Jean-Baptiste Colbert Lord of Louis XIV | |
---|---|
Preceded by | Louis Le Tonnelier |
Succeeded by | Claude Le Peletier |
Personal details | |
Born | Reims, France | 29 August 1619
Died | 6 September 1683 Paris, France | (aged 64)
Resting place | Saint-Eustache, Paris |
Spouse |
Marie Charron (m. 1648–1683) |
Children |
|
Nickname(s) | Le Grand Colbert (The Great Colbert) |
Academic career | |
Institution | |
Field | |
School or tradition | Mercantilism |
Influences | |
Contributions | Colbertism |
Awards | Order of the Holy Spirit |
Signature | |
Jean-Baptiste Colbert (French:
A native of
His effective
Biography
Early life
Colbert's father and grandfather were merchants in his birthplace of
Before the age of 20, Colbert had a post in the war office, a position generally attributed to the marriage of an uncle to the sister of Secretary of War
In 1657, he purchased the
Rise to power
Colbert was recommended to
Colbert's earliest recorded attempt at tax reform came in the form of a mémoire to Mazarin, showing that less than half of the taxes paid by the people reached the King. The paper also contained an attack on Nicolas Fouquet. The postmaster of Paris, a spy of Fouquet's, read the letter, leading to a dispute which Mazarin attempted to suppress.
In 1661, Mazarin died and Colbert "made sure of the King's favor" by revealing the location of some of Mazarin's hidden wealth. In January 1664 Colbert became the Superintendent of buildings; in 1665 he became Controller-General of Finances; in 1669, he became Secretary of State of the Navy; he also gained appointments as minister of commerce, of the colonies, and of the palace. In short, Colbert acquired power in every department except that of war.
A great financial and fiscal reform now claimed all his energies. Not only the nobility, but many others who had no legal claim to exemption, paid no taxes; the bulk of the burden fell on the rural poor. Supported by the young king
Economic reform
After the abolition of the office of superintendent and of many other offices dependent upon it, control of France's finances fell to a royal council. The sovereign functioned as its president, but Colbert, though only an intendant for the first four years, operated as its ruling spirit, enjoying as he did king's favor and confidence.
His ruthlessness in the execution of his functions may have set a dangerous precedent, but it probably struck him necessary in that the council could not defer to individual interests. This way of administering his policies was particularly in evidence in his preparation and enforcement of his forestry ordinance of 1669.[3] When he had severely punished guilty officials, he turned his attention to the government's fraudulent creditors. Here he had a simple way of operating. He repudiated some of the public loans and reduced the interest rate on others. The amount of the reduction was initially his own decision but ultimately that of a council he established to examine all claims against the state.
Much more serious difficulties met his attempts to introduce equality in taxation among the various classes. Cutting back the number of the privileged proved impossible, but Colbert firmly resisted false claims for exemption and lightened direct taxation by increasing indirect taxes, from which the privileged could not escape. At the same time, he undertook improvements to the way taxes were collected.
Colbert's relentless hard work and thrift made him an esteemed minister. He achieved a reputation for improving the state of French manufacturing and bringing the economy back from the brink of bankruptcy. Nevertheless, despite his best efforts, France grew increasingly impoverished because of the King's excessive spending on wars.[4]
Economic theory
Having introduced a measure of order and economy into the workings of the government, Colbert called for the enrichment of the country by means of commerce. Through Colbert's
To maintain the character of French goods in foreign markets as well as to afford a guarantee to the domestic consumer, Colbert had the quality and quantity of each article fixed by law, punishing breaches of the regulations by public exposure of the delinquent and destruction of the goods concerned, and, on the third offense, by the pillory. Colbert prohibited the production of certain products that might have suited consumers, and the time-consuming supervision he imposed on commercial enterprises may have acted as a hindrance to improvement. Other parts of Colbert's schemes have met with less equivocal condemnation.
By his firm maintenance of the
Unable to abolish the duties on the passage of goods from
To encourage overseas trade with the Levant, Senegal, Guinea and other places, Colbert granted privileges to companies, but, like the noted French East India Company, all proved unsuccessful.
Promoter of culture
Colbert took much interest in art and literature. He possessed a remarkably fine private library, which he delighted to fill with valuable manuscripts from every part of Europe and the
Colbert founded a number of institutions:
- in 1663 the Academy of Inscriptions and Medals
- in 1666 the French Academy at Rome
- in 1667 the Paris Observatory, which he employed Claude Perrault to build and brought Giovanni Domenico Cassini (1625–1712) from Italy to superintend
- in 1669 the Académie d'Opéra, later renamed the Académie Royale de Musique
- in 1671 the Academy of Architecture
- Academies at Arles, Soissons, Nîmes and many other towns
He reorganised the
Colbert himself became a member of the
He gave many pensions to men of letters, among whom we find Molière, Corneille, Racine, Boileau, P D Huet (1630–1721) and Antoine Varillas (1626–1696); and even foreigners, as Huygens, Carlo Roberto Dati the Dellacruscan. Evidence exists to show that by this munificence he hoped to draw out praises of his sovereign and himself; but this motive certainly does not account for all the splendid, if in some cases specious, services that he rendered to literature, science and art.
Death
Colbert worked incessantly hard until his final hours. Work was his religion; he once pondered whether it was better to rise early and work or retire very late and work. He concluded that rising early and retiring late would be the ideal combination. Towards the end of his life he suffered from stomach aches, which caused him much distress. He was reduced to eating moist bread dipped in chicken broth for his meals.
By 64 he was bedridden and died seven days after his birthday. The surgeons who examined him found that he had been suffering from
Religion
Colbert played a subordinate role in the struggle between the king and the
He showed himself at first unwilling to interfere with heresy, for he realised the commercial value of the Huguenots (French Protestants), who were well represented among the merchant classes; but when the king resolved to make all France Roman Catholic and revoked the Edict of Nantes,[8] he followed him and urged his subordinates to do all that they could to promote conversions.
Legacy
Colbert had nine children, including :
- Jeanne-Marie Colbert (1650–1732) , married Charles Honoré d'Albert, duc de Luynes
- Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de Seignelay (1651–1690) , followed his father as Secretary of State of the Navy
- Archbishop of Rouen.
- Jean-Jules-Armand Colbert (1664–1704) , marquis de Blainville, killed at the Battle of Blenheim.
- Henriette-Louise (1657–1733) , married Paul de Beauvilliers, 2nd duc de Saint-Aignan
His policies inspired those of Alexander Hamilton, the first treasury secretary of the United States.[9]
Six ships of the French Navy bore his name:
- A steam corvette in 1848
- A battleship in 1875
- A cargo ship in 1914
- A dundee in 1916
- A French heavy cruiser, launched 1928
- A French missile cruiser, launched 1956
In literature, the power struggle between Colbert and Fouquet is one of the main plotlines of Alexandre Dumas, père's novel The Vicomte of Bragelonne, the second sequel to The Three Musketeers. Dumas paints Colbert as an uncouth and ruthless schemer who stops at little, in contrast to the more refined Fouquet, counselled by Aramis, but also as a visionary patriot.
Colbert's statue stands outside the
Quotes
- "It is simply, and solely, the abundance of money within a state [which] makes the difference in its grandeur and power."[11]
- "The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest [number] of feathers with the least possible amount of hissing."[12]
See also
References
- ISBN 9782235021562.
Promulgué deux ans après la mort de Colbert (en 1685), le code noir avait été conçu par lui sous le nom de code des colonies.
- ^ One such law had the intention of improving the quality of cloth. The edict declared that if the authorities found a merchant's cloth unsatisfactory on three separate occasions, they were to tie him to a post with the cloth attached to him.
- ISSN 0002-1482.
- ISBN 978-1934619087.
- ISBN 978-9051836035.
- ^ For Colbert and Bernini in Paris in 1665, see Franco Mormando, Bernini: His Life and His Rome (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), pp. 245–288. [ISBN missing]
- ^ The tomb, commissioned by Colbert's widow in 1685, was designed by Charles Le Brun, director of official arts in France; Tuby assisted Colbert, providing one of the accompanying figures; the tomb was dismantled at the French Revolution and reinstated, in rearranged form, in 1818.
- ^ "The Edict of Nantes | History Today". historytoday.com. Retrieved 2022-02-07.
- ISBN 9781594200090.
- ^ "France Colbert row: Statue vandalised over slavery code". BBC News. BBC. 2020-06-24.
- ISBN 978-0-88132-641-3.
- ISBN 978-963-9116-06-1.
Sources
- Ames, Glenn J. Colbert, Mercantilism, and the French Quest for Asian Trade (1996)
- Clément, Jean-Pierre. Vie de Colbert, (Paris, 1846)
- Lettres, instructions, et Memoires de Colbert, (eight volumes, Paris, 1861–82)
- Histoire de Colbert et son administration, edited by Mademoiselle Clément, (Paris, 1874)
- Gordault, Colbert, ministre de Louis XIV, (Tours, 1885)
- Lavisse, Histoire de France, volume vii, part i, (Tours, 1905)
- Sargent, Economic Policy of Colbert, (London, 1899), which contains a bibliography of works relating to Colbert and his time.
- Tellier, Luc-Normand, Face aux Colbert : les Le Tellier, Vauban, Turgot ... et l'avènement du libéralisme, Presses de l'Université du Québec, 1987, 816 pages.
- Soll, Jacob The Information Master: Jean-Baptiste Colbert's Secret State Intelligence System; (University of Michigan Press 2009).
External links
- Media related to Jean-Baptiste Colbert at Wikimedia Commons
- Histoire de la vie et de l'administration de Colbert by Jean-Pierre Clément
- Jean-Baptiste Colbert Correspondence Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
- Colyar, H. A. de (1913). "Jean Baptiste Colbert". In Macdonell, John; Manson, Edward William Donoghue (eds.). Great Jurists of the World. London: John Murray. pp. 248–282. Retrieved 9 March 2019 – via Internet Archive.