Background
Colbert was born on August 29, 1619, in Reims, France, to a family of prosperous businessmen and officials.
Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, by Philippe de Champaigne (1655)
Order of the Holy Spirit
L'Institut de France building
Colbert en grande tenue
Jacques-Nicolas Colbert
Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de Seignelay
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Colbert was born on August 29, 1619, in Reims, France, to a family of prosperous businessmen and officials.
Colbert's youth is said to have been spent in a Jesuit college, in the office of a Parisian banker, and in that of a Parisian notary, Chapelain, the father of the poet.
Colbert entered the service of the French monarchy under Michel le Tellier, the father of the Marquis de Louvois. In 1651 he became the agent of Cardinal Mazarin, whom he served so well that the cardinal bequeathed him to King Louis XIV in 1661. Almost immediately Colbert became the most important minister in France. He was made intendant of finances in 1661 and in the next few years assumed responsibility for public buildings, commerce, and the administration of the royal household, the navy, and the merchant marine. His only serious rival was the war minister, Louvois. The two men intrigued against each other for royal favor, with Louvois, especially after 1679, gradually winning the upper hand. Colbert, however, remained immensely powerful until his death.
His most successful years were from 1661 to 1672. The neglect and corruption of the Mazarin period were replaced by a time of prosperity with expanding industry and mounting employment. The tax system was made slightly fairer and much more efficient, thereby greatly increasing Louis XIV's revenues. At the same time he laid the foundations of the French overseas empire in Canada, the West Indies, and the Far East. He organized royal trading companies to compete with the English and the Dutch for the trade of the Far East and the Americas. The great expansion of French commerce and industry in the next century was largely due to his groundwork. Colbert carried through a series of legal codifications of enormous importance, and the Code Napoleon was partly inspired by, and based on, his monumental work. He was not an innovator. His ideas came from other men, particularly Cardinal Richelieu, and his interpretation of them was often mistaken.
Some of the projects, however, were unsuccessful. He was unable to unify the diverse systems of weights and measures in France or to secure free trade within the country. His regulation of industry by constant inspection was largely ineffective, as his orders were often disregarded. The major failure of Colbert stemmed from his determination to end Dutch domination of Far Eastern and European trade. Unable to damage the Dutch by a vindictive tariff war, he supported Louis XIV's unprovoked invasion of Holland in 1672 in the hope that the Dutch would be overrun in a few weeks. But the resultant war lasted until 1679, and the strain on the French economy undid many of the good results of Colbert's work.
Colbert died on September 6, 1683, to the great relief of the general public, with whom he was (for the most part undeservedly) very unpopular.
Colbert was successful in building up one of the strongest European navies and a more than respectable merchant marine. His relentless hard work and thrift made him an esteemed minister. He achieved a reputation for his work of improving the state of French manufacturing and bringing the economy back from the brink of bankruptcy.
Colbert founded a number of institutions: Academy of Sciences (now part of the Institut de France), the Paris Observatory, the Academy of Architecture, the Academy of Music and others.
Colbert played a subordinate role in the struggle between the king and the papacy as to the royal rights over vacant bishoprics, and he seems to have sympathized with the proposal that suggested seizing part of the wealth of the clergy.
He showed himself at first unwilling to interfere with heresy, for he realized 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, he followed him and urged his subordinates to do all that they could to promote conversions.
Colbert's program was to build up the economic strength of France by creating and protecting French industries, encouraging exports, and restricting imports (especially of luxury goods). By endless regulation and supervision, he tried to make French industry, particularly in luxury items, first in Europe; he was partially successful, for the French tradition of high quality in certain fields (for example, tapestry and porcelain) dates from his time.
Quotations:
"It is simply, and solely, the abundance of money within a state (which) makes the difference in its grandeur and power."
"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."
Colbert was the supreme mercantilist.
Colbert married Marie Charron in 1648. The couple had 3 children.
