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Colbert, J-B

Name: Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Baron of Seignelay

Achievements: Economic revival of 17th century France

Born: August 29, 1619; Rheims, France 

Died: September 6, 1683; Paris, France (Aged 64)

Statesman

Field & Discipline: Politics

Language: French

Father: Unknown

Mother: Unknown

Siblings: Nicolas

Spouse: Name unknown

Children:  Unknown number, of whom: Jean-Baptiste Colbert (Marquis de Seignelay); Jacques-Nicholas (Archbishop of Rouen); Jules-Armand (Marquis d'Ormoy)

Education: Jesuit School, Rheims

Life & Times:

When he was 19, Colbert left Rheims to live in Paris. Through Michel le Tellier, Secretary of State for War, a family connection, he got a job in the war office and worked his way up to become private secretary to the war minister.

In 1651 he was made special agent to the absent [special agent to] Cardinal Mazarin*, the dominant political figure in France, who had been driven from Paris during the Fronde civil wars (1648-53), when the nobles rebelled against the King. It was Colbert's duty to take care of Mazarin's personal affairs and keep him up to date on political developments. 

When Mazarin returned to Paris in 1652, he retained Colbert as his personal assistant.  He also helped him buy profitable jobs for himself and his family.  Before he died in 1661, Mazarin recommended to [worked for] Louis XIV* that he keep Colbert. After a few months, noting Colbert's diligent and devoted service, the King awarded him an advisory post.

Colbert immediately set about undermining the position of [brought down] Nicolas Fouquet*, the powerful superintendent of finances.  He informed the King about irregularities in Fouquet's accounts and financial operations.  He made his presence felt in the Royal Council and soon became its ruling spirit.  In 1665, when he was appointed controller-general, he ruthlessly began to reform Fouquet's corrupt financial administration. He set up tribunals to try financiers and tax collectors who had made enormous profits from loans and advances to the treasury.

During the 1660s, Colbert also reformed the chaotic tax system, making taxes less oppressive by reducing the total amount and distributing it more uniformly throughout France.   He increased indirect taxes, drastically reformed taxing methods, and completely revised the tariff system.

Believing that an increase in French international trade (and a hoped-for reduction in Dutch commerce) would bring an increase in French power, he brought in policies to encourage greater output from French industry, based on the same method of centralized regulation that had brought order to the taxation system.  His "mercantilism" included government subsidies (but also government inspections.)

He set up model factories financed by State funds (such as the Gobelins, or the Royal Glass Works in Paris, directed by master glassmaker [employed] Louis Lucas de Nehou*) and granted privileges to  private industries. He standardized the production of staple commodities and made regulations for every form of manufacture. Faulty workmanship or deviation from the standard were severely punished.

Colbert's regulations, however, did not sit well with producers, traders, and contractors, who were all used to greater freedoms.  Agriculture suffered because Colbert spent most of the proceeds from French industry on communications and external trade,  improving roads and canals, particularly the great Canal du Midi, built by [commissioned work by] Pierre Paul Riquet*.

As superintendent of public buildings, he spectacularly improved the appearance of Paris, enriching it with boulevards, quays, triumphal arches. He supervised the construction of the Hotel des Invalides and the Tuileries Gardens.  He relaid the foundation stone of the Louvre, and brought Italian architect [invited work from] Bernini* from Rome to be its architect (Bernini's plans proved too expensive).

In 1664, to compete with England and Holland, Colbert established the French East India and French West India Companies, trading with the Eastern Mediterranean and Northern Europe. To protect national industries, he levied tariffs against foreign produce, but other countries retaliated with tariffs against French goods, and the tariff war became one of the chief causes of the Dutch War of 1672-78.  Colbert was also instrumental in changing the administration of justice, introducing his famous Code of Civil Procedure (1667) and the Code of Criminal Procedure (1670).

Another of Colbert's goals was to make France a great power at sea, which meant forming a fighting fleet, building and equipping it, fortifying ports, and beefing up the merchant navy.  During the 1660s and 1670s, he reconstructed the shipyards and arsenal at Toulon, founded the port and arsenal of Rochefort, and built naval schools there as well as at Dieppe and St.-Malo.

With the aid of military engineer and architect [employed] Vauban*, he also fortified the ports of Calais, Dunkirk, Brest, and Le Havre. Wanting his ships to look imposing, he hired artists like [employed] Pierre Puget* and [employed] Charles Le Brun* to decorate them.  He forbade French seamen to serve in foreign navies and threatened them with death if they did.  (He also forbade French workmen to emigrate).

Colbert was a dedicated patron of the arts, a member of the Academie Francaise, and the owner of a fine private library. In 1663, he founded the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, which had the task of making inscriptions for medals and monuments celebrating the King's victories. In 1666, he founded the Academie des Sciences, the first such institution since Mersenne's Paris Academy 20 years earlier, whose task was to recommend how the sciences could be exploited to national advantage.

He also founded the Paris Observatory  (bringing[employed]  Italian astronomer Giovanni Cassini* to run it),  the Academie Royale d'Architecture (1671),  the Academie de France in Rome (in which artists could be trained under some of the great masters), and the Ecole des Jeunes de Langues, for the study of Oriental languages.  He also reorganized the academy of painting and sculpture, which Richelieu had established, and founded an academy of music.

In 1673, he presided over the first exhibition of the works of living painters, and bought hundreds of paintings and statues for the Louvre.  He also gave pensions to artists and writers, including [patron of] Moliere,*  [patron of] Corneille*, Racine*,  [patron of] Boileau*, and even some foreigners, such as  [patron of] Christiaan Huyghens*.  To carry out his reforms, Colbert needed peace, but the war department was in the hands of his great rival [rival was] Louvois*, who gradually replaced him in the King's favor.

Extra Connections: His work related to that of [influenced] Allgood* and [influenced] Chevreul* (later Director of the Gobelins)

He approved exploration by [approved exploration by] La Salle* and [approved exploration by] Radisson*

His niece knew [family knew] Emilie du Chatelet*

His eulogy was written by [eulogy written by] Necker*

He dismissed [fired] Pierre Perrault* for corruption

He employed [employed] Charles Perrault*

He knew [knew]Viviani*

Assessment: Best known for "Colbertism" (also called "mercantilism"), the rigid application of government controls over the economy, he was also a great codifier of laws and an initiator of state cultural and scientific undertakings.

Oneliner: J-B Colbert, Louis XIV’s chief minister

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