Editing Louis XIV (section)

===Coming of age and early reforms===
[[File:Royal Monogram of King Louis XIV of France.svg|thumb|upright=0.45|Royal Monogram]]
Louis XIV was declared to have reached the age of majority on the 7th of September 1651. On the death of Mazarin, in March 1661, Louis personally took the reins of government and astonished his court by declaring that he would rule without a chief minister: "Up to this moment I have been pleased to entrust the government of my affairs to the late Cardinal. It is now time that I govern them myself. You [secretaries and ministers] will assist me with your counsels when I ask for them. I request and order you to seal no orders except by my command . . . I order you not to sign anything, not even a passport . . . without my command; to render account to me personally each day and to favor no one".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Louis XIV - the Sun King: Absolutism |url=http://www.louis-xiv.de/index.php?id=30 |website=louis-xiv.de |access-date=6 December 2013 |archive-date=28 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131028092402/http://louis-xiv.de/index.php?id=30 |url-status=live }}</ref> Capitalizing on the widespread public yearning for peace and order after decades of foreign and civil strife, the young king consolidated central political authority at the expense of the feudal aristocracy. Praising his ability to choose and encourage men of talent, the historian [[François-René de Chateaubriand|Chateaubriand]] noted: "it is the voice of genius of all kinds which sounds from the tomb of Louis".{{Sfn|Dunlop|2000|p=xii}}

Louis began his personal reign with administrative and fiscal reforms. In 1661, the treasury verged on bankruptcy. To rectify the situation, Louis chose [[Jean-Baptiste Colbert]] as [[Controller-General of Finances]] in 1665. However, Louis first had to neutralize [[Nicolas Fouquet]], the powerful [[Superintendent of Finances]]. Although Fouquet's financial indiscretions were not very different from Mazarin's before him or Colbert's after him, his ambition worried Louis. He lavishly entertained the king at the opulent château of [[Vaux-le-Vicomte]], flaunting a wealth which could hardly have accumulated except through [[embezzlement]] of government funds.

Fouquet appeared eager to succeed Mazarin and Richelieu in power, and he indiscreetly purchased and privately fortified the remote island of [[Belle Île]]. These acts sealed his doom. Fouquet was charged with embezzlement; the ''Parlement'' found him guilty and sentenced him to exile; and finally Louis altered the sentence to life imprisonment.
[[File:Colbert Presenting the Members of the Royal Academy of Sciences to Louis XIV in 1667.PNG|thumb|Members of the {{lang|fr|[[French Academy of Sciences|Académie des sciences]]}} with Louis in 1667; in the background appears the new [[Paris Observatory]].]]
Fouquet's downfall gave Colbert a free hand to reduce the national debt through more efficient taxation. The principal taxes included the ''aides'' and ''douanes'' (both [[Customs|customs duties]]), the ''[[gabelle]]'' (salt tax), and the ''[[taille]]'' (land tax). The ''taille'' was reduced at first, and certain tax-collection contracts were auctioned instead of being sold privately to a favoured few. Financial officials were required to keep regular accounts, revising inventories and removing unauthorized exemptions: up to 1661 only 10 per cent of income from the royal domain reached the king. Reform had to overcome vested interests: the ''taille'' was collected by officers of the Crown who had purchased their post at a high price, and punishment of abuses necessarily lowered the value of the purchase. Nevertheless, Colbert achieved excellent results, with the deficit of 1661 turning into a surplus by 1666, with interest on the debt decreasing from 52&nbsp;million to 24&nbsp;million livres. The ''taille'' was reduced to 42&nbsp;million in 1661 and 35&nbsp;million in 1665, while revenue from indirect taxation progressed from 26&nbsp;million to 55&nbsp;million. The revenues of the royal domain were raised from 80,000 livres in 1661 to 5.5&nbsp;million in 1671. In 1661, the receipts were equivalent to 26&nbsp;million British pounds, of which 10&nbsp;million reached the treasury. The expenditure was around 18&nbsp;million pounds, leaving a deficit of 8&nbsp;million. In 1667, the net receipts had risen to 20&nbsp;million [[pounds sterling]], while expenditure had fallen to 11&nbsp;million, leaving a surplus of 9&nbsp;million pounds.

[[File:Description-de-l'entree-Du-Roy-et-de-la-Reyne-Paris MG 1114.tif|thumb|Engraving of Louis{{Nbsp}}XIV]]

Money was the essential support of the reorganized and enlarged army, the panoply of Versailles, and the growing civil administration. Finance had always been the weakness of the French monarchy: tax collection was costly and inefficient; direct taxes dwindled as they passed through the hands of many intermediate officials; and indirect taxes were collected by private contractors called tax farmers who made a handsome profit. The state coffers leaked at every joint.

The main weakness arose from an old bargain between the French crown and nobility: the king might raise taxes on the nation without consent if only he exempted the nobility. Only the "unprivileged" classes paid direct taxes, which came to mean the peasants only, as most bourgeois finagled exemptions in one way or another. The system laid the whole burden of state expenses on the backs of the poor and powerless. After 1700, with the support of Louis's pious secret wife [[Madame de Maintenon]], the king was persuaded to change his fiscal policy. Though willing enough to tax the nobles, Louis feared the political concessions which they would demand in return. Only towards the close of his reign under the extreme exigency of war, was he able, for the first time in French history, to impose direct taxes on the aristocracy. This was a step toward equality before the law and toward sound public finance, though it was predictably diminished by concessions and exemptions won by the insistent efforts of nobles and bourgeois.{{Sfn|Petitfils|2002|pp=250–253, 254–260}}

Louis and Colbert also had wide-ranging plans to grow French commerce and trade. Colbert's [[mercantilism|mercantilist]] administration established new industries and encouraged manufacturers and inventors, such as the [[Lyon]] silk manufacturers and the [[Gobelins manufactory|Gobelins tapestry manufactory]]. He invited manufacturers and artisans from all over Europe to France, such as [[Murano]] glassmakers, Swedish ironworkers, and Dutch shipbuilders. He aimed to decrease imports while increasing French exports, hence reducing the net outflow of precious metals from France.

Louis instituted reforms in military administration through [[Michel le Tellier]] and his son [[François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois|François-Michel le Tellier]], successive Marquis de Louvois. They helped to curb the independent spirit of the nobility, imposing order on them at court and in the army. Gone were the days when generals protracted war at the frontiers while bickering over precedence and ignoring orders from the capital and the larger strategic picture, with the old military aristocracy (''noblesse d'épée'', nobility of the sword) monopolizing senior military positions and the higher ranks. Louvois modernized the army and reorganised it into a professional, disciplined, well-trained force. He was devoted to the soldiers' material well-being and morale, and even tried to direct campaigns.