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COLBERT, JEAN BAPTISTE (1619-1683)
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See also:COLBERT, See also:JEAN See also:BAPTISTE (1619-1683) , See also:French statesman, was See also:born at See also:Reims, where his See also:father and grandfather were merchants. He claimed to be the descendant of a See also:noble Scottish See also:family, but the See also:evidence for this is lacking. His youth is said to have been spent in a Jesuit See also:college, in the See also:office of a Parisian banker, and in that of a Parisian See also:notary, See also:Chapelain, the father of the poet. But the first fact on which we can rely with confidence is that, when not yet twenty, he obtained a See also:post in the See also:war-office, by means of the See also:influence that he possessed through the See also:marriage of one of his uncles to the See also:sister of See also:Michel Le Tellier, the secretary of See also:state for war. During some years he was employed in the inspection of troops and other See also:work of the See also:kind, but at length his ability, his extraordinary See also:energy and his untiring laboriousness induced Le Tellier to make him his private secretary. These qualities, combined, it must be confessed, with a readiness to seize every opportunity of See also:advancement, soon brought Colbert both See also:wealth and influence. In 1647 we find him receiving the confiscated goods of his See also:uncle Pussort, in 1648 obtaining 40,000 crowns with his wife See also:Marie See also:Charron, in 1649 appointed councillor of state. It was the See also:period of the See also:wars of the See also:Fronde; and in 1651 the See also:triumph of the See also:Conde family drove See also:Cardinal See also:Mazarin from See also:Paris. Colbert, now aged' See also:thirty-two, was engaged to keep him acquainted with what should happen in the See also:capital during his See also:absence. At first Colbert's position was far from satisfactory; for the See also:close wary See also:Italian treated him merely as an See also:ordinary See also:agent. On one occasion, for example, he offered him l000 crowns. The See also:gift was refused somewhat indignantly; and by giving See also:proof of the immense value of his services, Colbert gained all that he desired. His demands were not small; for, with an ambition mingled, as his letters show, with strong family See also:affection, he aimed at placing all his relatives in positions of affluence and dignity; and many a See also:rich See also:benefice and important public office was appropriated by him to that purpose. For these favours, conferred upon him by his See also:patron with no stinted See also:hand, his thanks were expressed in a most remarkable manner; he published a See also:letter defending the cardinal from the See also:charge of ingratitude which was often brought against him, by enumerating the benefits that he and his family had received from him (See also:April 1655). Colbert obtained, besides, the higher See also:object of his ambition; the confidence of Mazarin, so far as it was granted to any one, became his, and he was entrusted with matters of the gravest importance. In 1659 he was giving directions as to the suppression of the revolt of the gentry which threatened in See also:Normandy, See also:Anjou and See also:Poitou, with characteristic decision arresting those whom he suspected, and arranging every detail of their trial, the immediate and arbitrary destruction of their castles and See also:woods, and the See also:execution of their See also:chief, Bonnesson. In the same See also:year we have evidence that he was already planning his See also:great See also:attempt at See also:financial reform. His earliest tentative was the See also:drawing up of a memoire to Mazarin, showing that of the taxes paid by tle See also:people not one-See also:half reached the See also: Colbert sternly and fearlessly set about his task. Supported by the See also:young king, See also: The mode of collection was at the same time immensely improved. See also:Order and See also:economy being thus introduced into the working of the government, the country, according to Colbert's vast yet detailed See also:plan, was to be enriched by commerce. Manufactures were fostered in every way he could devise. New See also:industries were established, inventors protected, workmen invited from See also:foreign countries, French workmen absolutely prohibited to emigrate. To maintain the See also:character of French goods in foreign markets, as well as to afford a See also:guarantee to the See also:home consumer, the quality and measure of each See also:article were fixed by See also:law, See also:breach of the regulations being punished by public exposure of the delinquent and destruction of the goods, and, on the third offence, by the See also:pillory. But whatever See also:advantage resulted from this See also:rule was more than compensated by the disadvantages it entailed. The See also:production of qualities which would have suited many purposes of See also:consumption was prohibited, and the odious supervision which became necessary involved great See also:waste of time and a stereotyped regularity which resisted all improvements. And other parts of Colbert's schemes deserve still less equivocal condemnation. By his See also:firm See also:maintenance of the See also:corporation See also:system, each See also:industry remained in the hands of certain privileged See also:bourgeois; in this way, too, improvement was greatly discouraged; while to the See also:lower classes opportunities of advancement were closed. With regard to See also:international commerce Colbert was equally unfortunate in not being in advance of his See also:age; the tariffs he published were protective to an extreme. The interests of See also:internal commerce were, however, wisely consulted. Unable to abolish the duties on the passage of goods from See also:province to province, he did what he could to induce the provinces to equalize them. The roads and canals were improved. The great See also:canal of See also:Languedoc was planned and constructed by See also:Pierre See also:Paul Riquet (1604-1680) under his patronage. To encourage See also:trade with the See also:Levant, See also:Senegal, See also:Guinea and other places, privileges were granted to companies; but, like the more important See also:East See also:India See also:Company, all were unsuccessful. The chief cause of this failure, as well as of the failure of the colonies, on which he bestowed so much watchful care, was the narrowness and rigidity of the government regulations. The greatest and most lasting of Colbert's achievements was the See also:establishment of the French marine. The royal See also:navy owed all to him, for the king thought only of military exploits. For its use, Colbert reconstructed the See also:works and See also:arsenal of See also:Toulon, founded the See also:port and arsenal of See also:Rochefort, and the See also:naval See also:schools of Rochefort, See also:Dieppe and See also:Saint-Malo, and fortified, with some assistance from See also:Vauban (who, however, belonged to the party of his See also:rival See also:Louvois), among other ports those of See also:Calais, See also:Dunkirk, See also:Brest and See also:Havre. To See also:supply it with recruits he invented his famous system of classes, by which each See also:seaman, according to the class in which he was placed, gave six months' service every three or four or five years. For three months after his See also:term of service he was to receive half-pay; See also:pensions were promised; and, in short, everything was done to make the navy popular. There was one department, however, that was supplied with men on •a very different principle. Letters exist written by Colbert to the See also:judges requiring them to See also:sentence to the See also:oar as many criminals as possible, including all those who had been condemned to death; and the convict once chained to the See also:bench, the expiration of his sentence was seldom allowed to bring him See also:release. Mendicants also, against whom no See also:crime had been proved, See also:contraband dealers, those who had been engaged in insurrections, and others immeasurably See also:superior to the criminal class, See also:nay, See also:innocent men—Turkish, See also:Russian and See also:negro slaves, and poor See also:Iroquois See also:Indians, whom the Canadians were ordered to entrap—were pressed into that terrible service. By these means the benches of the galleys were filled, and Colbert took no thought of the See also:long unrelieved agony See also:borne by those who filled them. Nor was the See also:mercantile marine forgotten. Encouragement was given to the See also:building of See also:ships in See also:France by allowing a See also:premium on those built at home, and imposing a See also:duty on those brought from abroad; and as French workmen were forbidden to emigrate, so French See also:seamen were forbidden to serve foreigners on See also:pain of death. Even ecclesiastical affairs, though with these he had no official concern, did not altogether escape Colbert's See also:attention. He took a subordinate See also:part in the struggle between the king and See also:Rome as to the royal rights over vacant bishoprics; and he seems to have sympathized with the proposal that was made to seize part of the wealth of the See also:clergy. In his hatred of idleness; he ventured to suppress no less than seventeen fetes, and he had a project for lessening the number of those devoted to clerical and monastic See also:life, by fixing the age for ,taking the vows some years later than was then customary. With See also:heresy he was at first unwilling to interfere, for he was aware of the commercial value of the See also:Huguenots; but when the king resolved to make all France See also:Roman See also:Catholic, he followed him and urged his subordinates to do all that they could to promote conversions. In See also:art and literature Colbert took much See also:interest. He possessed a remarkably See also:fine private library, which he delighted to fill with valuable See also:manuscripts from every part of See also:Europe where France had placed a See also:consul. He has the See also:honour of having founded the See also:Academy of Sciences (now called the Institut de France), the See also:Observatory, which he employed See also:Claude See also:Perrault to build and brought G. D. See also:Cassini (1625-1712) from See also:Italy to superintend, the See also:Academies of See also:Inscriptions and Medals, of See also:Architecture and of See also:Music, the French Academy at Rome, and Academies at See also:Arles, See also:Soissons, See also:Nimes and many other towns, and he reorganized the Academy of See also:Painting and See also:Sculpture which See also:Richelieu had established. He was a member of the French Academy; and one very characteristic rule, recorded to have been proposed by him with the intention of expediting the great See also:Dictionary, in which he was much interested, was that no one should be accounted See also:present at any See also:meeting unless he arrived before the See also:hour of commencement and remained till the hour for leaving. In 1673 he presided over the first See also: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 See also:Moliere, See also:Corneille, See also:Racine, Boileau, P. D. See also:Huet (163o-1721) and See also:Antoine Varillas (1626-1696), and even foreigners, as Huyghens, See also:Vossius the geographer, Carlo Dati the Dellacruscan, and See also:Heinsius the great Dutch See also:scholar. There is evidence to show that by this munificence he hoped to draw out praises of his sovereign and himself; but this See also:motive certainly is far from accounting for all the splendid, if in some cases specious, services that he rendered to literature, See also:science and art.
Indeed to everything that concerned the interests of France Colbert devoted unsparing thought and toil. Besides all that
has been mentioned, he found time to do something for the better administration of See also:justice (the codification of ordinances, the diminishing of the number of judges, the reduction of the expense and length of trials for the establishment of a superior system of See also:police) and even for the improvement of the breed of horses and the increase of See also:cattle. As superintendent of public buildings he enriched Paris with boulevards, quays and triumphal See also:arches; he relaid the See also:foundation-See also: He died extremely rich, and See also:left fine estates all over France. He had been created See also:marquis de Seignelay, and for his eldest son he obtained the reversion of the office of minister of marine; his second son became See also:arch-See also:bishop of See also:Rouen; and a third son, the marquis d'Ormoy, became superintendent of buildings. To carry out his reforms, Colbert needed See also:peace; but the war department was in the hands of his great rival Louvois, whose influence gradually supplanted that of Colbert with the king. Louis decided on a policy of See also:conquest. He was See also:deaf also to all the appeals against the other forms of his boundless extravagance which Colbert, with all his deference towards his sovereign, bravely ventured to make.' Thus it came about that, only a few years after he had commenced to See also:free the country from the weight of the loans and taxes which crushed her to the dust, Colbert was forced to heap upon her a new load of loans and taxes more heavy than the last. Henceforth his life was a hopeless struggle, and the financial and fiscal reform which, with the great exception of the establishment of the navy, was the most valuable service to France contemplated by him, came to nought. Depressed by his failure, deeply wounded by the king's favour for Louvois, and worn out by overwork, Colbert's strength gave way at a comparatively See also:early age. In 168o he was the constant victim of severe fevers, from which he recovered for a time through the use of See also:quinine prescribed by an See also:English physician. But in 1683, at the age of sixty-four, he was seized with a fatal illness, and on the 6th of See also:September he expired. It was said that he died of a broken See also:heart, and a conversation with the king is reported in which Louis disparagingly compared the buildings of Versailles, which Colbert was superintending, with the works constructed by Louvois in See also:Flanders. He took to See also:bed, it is true, immediately afterwards, refusing to receive all messages from the king; but his constitution was utterly broken before, and a post-mortem examination proved that he had been suffering from stone. His See also:body was interred in the secrecy of See also:night, for fear of See also:outrage from the Parisians, by whom his name was cordially detested. Colbert was a great statesman, who did much for France. Yet his insight into See also:political science was not deeper than that of his age; nor did he possess any superiority in moral qualities. His rule was a very See also:bad example of over-government. He did not believe in popular See also:liberty;, the parlements and the states-general received no support from him. The technicalities of justice he never allowed to interfere with his plans; but he did not hesitate to See also:shield his See also:friends. He trafficked in public offices for the profit of Mazarin and in his own behalf. He caused the suffering of thousands in the galleys; he had no See also:ear, it is said, for the cry of the suppliant. There was indeed a more human See also:side to his character, as is shown in his letters, full of See also:wise See also:advice and affectionate care, to his See also:children, his See also:brothers, his See also:cousins even. Yet to all outside he was " the See also:man of See also:marble." Madame de See also:Sevigne called him " the See also:North." To See also:diplomacy he never pretended; persuasion and deceit were not the weapons he ' See especially a Memoire presented to the king in 1666, published in the Lettres, de Colbert, vol. ii.employed; all his work was carried out by the See also:iron hand of authority. He was a great statesman in that he conceived a magnificent yet practicable See also:scheme for making France first among nations, and in that he possessed a matchless See also:faculty for work, neither shrinking from the vastest undertakings nor scorning the most trivial details. Numerous vies and eloges of Colbert have been published; but the most thorough student of his life and administration was Pierre See also:Clement, member of the See also:Institute, who in 1846 published his See also:Vie de Colbert, and in 1861 the first of the 9 vols. of the Lettres, instructions, et mmoires de Colbert. The See also:historical introductions prefixed to each of these volumes have been published by Mme. Clement under the title of the Histoire de Colbert et de son administration (3rd ed., 1892). The best short See also:account of Colbert as a statesman is that in See also:Lavisse, Histoire de France (1905), which gives a thorough study of the administration. Among Colbert's papers are Mimoires sur See also:les affaires de See also:finance de France (written about 1663), a fragment entitled Particularites secretes de la vie du See also:Roy, and other accounts of the earlier part of the reign of Louis XIV. (J. T. 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