Editing Jean-Baptiste Colbert (section)

==Biography==
===Early life===
Colbert's father and grandfather were merchants in his birthplace of [[Reims]], [[France]]. He claimed to have Scottish ancestry. A widespread (but unconfirmed) belief exists that he spent his early youth at a [[Jesuit]]  college, working for a Parisian banker; as well as working for the father of [[Jean Chapelain]].

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 [[Michel Le Tellier]]. Colbert spent some time as an inspector of troops, eventually becoming the personal secretary of Le Tellier. 
In 1647, through unknown means, Colbert acquired the confiscated goods of an uncle, Pussort.  In 1648, he and his wife Marie Charron, received 40,000 crowns from an unknown source; and in 1649 Colbert became the councilor of state, i.e. a political minister.

In 1657, he purchased the [[Feudal barony|Barony]] of [[Seignelay]].

===Rise to power===
Colbert was recommended to [[King Louis XIV]] by Mazarin.  While [[Cardinal Mazarin]] was in exile, Louis's trust in Colbert grew. In 1652 Colbert was asked to manage the affairs of the Cardinal while he was away. This new responsibility would detach Colbert from his other responsibility as ''commissaire des guerres''. Although Colbert was not a supporter of Mazarin in principle, he would defend the cardinal's interests with unflagging devotion.

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.<ref name=EB1911>Chisholm 1911.</ref>

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 [[Bâtiments du Roi|Superintendent of buildings]]; in 1665 he became [[Controller-General of Finances]]; in 1669, he became [[Secretary of State of the Navy (France)|Secretary of State of the Navy]]; he also gained appointments as minister of [[commerce]], of the [[colony|colonies]], and of the [[palace]]. In short, Colbert acquired power in every department except that of war.<ref name=EB1911/>

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 [[Louis XIV of France|Louis XIV]], Colbert aimed the first blow at the man accused of being the greatest of the royal embezzlers, the superintendent [[Nicolas Fouquet]]. Fouquet's fall secured Colbert's own advancement.<ref name=EB1911/>

===Economic reform===
[[File:Colbert-5.jpg|thumb|Colbert ''en grande tenue'' by [[Claude Lefèbvre]], 1666]]

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 des finances|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 [[French forestry ordinance of 1669|forestry ordinance of 1669]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Bamford |first=Paul Walden |date=1955 |title=French Forest Legislation and Administration, 1660-1789 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3739851 |journal=Agricultural History |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=97–107 |jstor=3739851 |issn=0002-1482}}</ref> 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 [[economics|economy]] back from the brink of [[bankruptcy]]. Nevertheless, despite his best efforts, France grew increasingly [[poverty|impoverished]] because of the King's excessive spending on wars.<ref name="Letters to John Law">{{cite book|url= |title=Letters to John Law|author=Gavin John Adams|publisher=Newton Page|year=2012|isbn=978-1934619087|page=xxiii}}</ref>

===Economic theory===
{{Further|Colbertism|Protectionism}}

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 ''[[dirigiste]]'' policies,{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}} France fostered manufacturing enterprises in a wide variety of fields. The authorities established new industries, protected inventors, invited in workmen from foreign countries, and prohibited French workmen from emigrating.<ref name=EB1911/>

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.<ref name=EB1911/>

By his firm maintenance of the [[corporation]] system, each industry remained in the hands of certain privileged ''[[bourgeois]]'';  while the lower classes found opportunities of advancement closed.  He did, however, wisely consult the interests of internal commerce.<ref name=EB1911/>

Unable to abolish the duties on the passage of goods from [[provinces of France|province to province]], he did what he could to induce the provinces to equalize them.<ref name=EB1911/> Currency exchange rates still remained between these provinces despite a policy focusing on the unification of French trade.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}} His régime improved roads and canals. [[Pierre Paul Riquet]] (1604–1680) planned and constructed the [[Canal du Midi]] under Colbert's patronage.<ref name=EB1911/>

To encourage overseas trade with the [[Levant]], [[Senegal]], [[Guinea]] and other places, Colbert granted privileges to companies, but, like the noted [[Louis XIV's East India Company|French East India Company]], all proved unsuccessful.<ref name=EB1911/>

===Promoter of culture===
[[File:Jean Baptiste Colbert -Antoine Coysevox - Musée du Louvre Sculptures MR 2115 ; N 15273.jpg|thumb|190px|Bust of Colbert by [[Antoine Coysevox]], Paris, [[Louvre]]]]
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 [[Near East]] where France had placed a consul. He employed [[Pierre de Carcavi]] and [[Étienne Baluze]] as librarians. Colbert's grandson sold the manuscript collection in 1732 to the [[Bibliothèque Nationale|Bibliothèque Royale]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Busby|first=Keith|title=Les Manuscrits de Chrétien de Troyes|year=1993|publisher=Rodopi|isbn=978-9051836035|pages=113–114}}</ref>

Colbert founded a number of institutions: 
* in 1663 the [[Académie des Inscriptions et Médailles|Academy of Inscriptions and Medals]] 
* in 1666 the [[French Academy of Sciences|Academy of Sciences]] (now part of the [[Institut de France]]) and 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 [[Académie Royale d'Architecture|Academy of Architecture]]
* Academies at [[Arles]], [[Soissons]], [[Nîmes]] and many other towns

He reorganised the [[Académie de peinture et de sculpture|Academy of Painting and Sculpture]] which Mazarin had established. Wishing to increase the prestige of the image of France and the French royal family, Colbert played an active role in bringing the great Italian architect-sculptor, [[Gian Lorenzo Bernini#Visit to France and service to King Louis XIV|Gian Lorenzo Bernini]], to Paris (June–October 1665), in order to design the new East Facade of the Louvre. This was a striking coup and caused a sensation because Bernini, the most famous artist in all of Europe, had never before (or after) consented to travel any significant distance to meet a patron, however highly ranked, but had to agree in this case for reasons of diplomacy between France and the [[Holy See]]. While in France, Bernini also sculpted a marble portrait bust of Louis XIV (Versailles palace). However the relations between the two strong-willed men, Colbert and Bernini, proved melodramatically stormy. Bernini's Louvre design was ultimately rejected.<ref>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?}}</ref>

Colbert himself became a member of the [[Académie française]]; and proposed one very characteristic rule with the intention of expediting the great ''[[Le dictionnaire de l'Académie française|Dictionary]]'', in which he had a great interest: no one could count as present at any meeting unless he arrived before the hour of commencement and remained till the hour for leaving. In 1673 Colbert presided over the first exhibition of the works of living painters; and he enriched the [[Louvre]] with hundreds of pictures and statues.

He gave many pensions to men of letters, among whom we find [[Molière]], [[Pierre Corneille|Corneille]], [[Jean Racine|Racine]], [[Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux|Boileau]], [[Pierre Daniel Huet|P D Huet]] (1630–1721) and [[Antoine Varillas]] (1626–1696); and even foreigners, as [[Christiaan Huygens|Huygens]], [[Carlo Roberto Dati]] the [[Accademia della Crusca|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===
[[File:Colbert tomb at St-Eustache 2011-03.jpg|thumb|200px|The tomb of Colbert, by [[Antoine Coysevox]] and [[Jean-Baptiste Tuby]], 1685, in [[Église Saint-Eustache, Paris]]<ref>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.</ref>]]

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 [[kidney stone]]s. A huge stone was found in his [[urinary tract]], which would explain his pain.