COLBERT, kiWbAr', JEAN BAPTISTE (1619 S3). A French statesman, :Minister of Finance under Louis XIV. He was born at Rheims, August 29, 1619, and served his apprenticeship in a woolen draper's shop. He afterwards went to Paris, and soon obtained a position yin, the War Office, where his tireless activity brought him into notice. He became secre tary to Le Tellier, then at the head of the War Office, and through his influence was made a counselor of the King and introduced to Ma zarin, who soon employed Min in important affairs of State. On his deathbed Mazarin rec ommended Colbert to the King, who in 1665 ap pointed him Comptroller-General of the Finances. Colbert found the finances in a ruinous condi tion. and immediately entered upon an elaborate programme of reform. Fouquet, the Superin tendent of Buildings under Mazarin, was found guilty of maladministration, and was imprisoned for life. The new Comptroller instituted a council of finance and a chamber of justice, to call to account the farmers of the State revenues, who were forced to yield up all the wealth of the Crown of which they had fraudulently pos sessed themselves. In twenty years the revenue rose to 116,000,000 livres, of which but 23.000, 000 were spent in collection and administration, whereas before Colbert took the finances in hand the revenue had amounted to only 84,000.000 livres, of which 52.000,000 were absorbed in col lection. Colbert did not rest satisfied with being a financial reformer, but in various ways devel oped the industrial activity of the nation by State support. He was created Minis ter of Marine in 1669, and shortly afterwards he acquired control of commerce, the colo nies, and the royal expenditure. French trade was extended, and roads and canals—including the great canal of Languedoc—were built. Cer tain features of his economic policy, such as a too stringent regulation of commerce, high pro tective duties, and the maintenance of the cor poration system, have been frequently criticised, but they were rather the faults of the age than of the man. He organized anew the colonies in Canada, Martinique. and Haiti, and founded those of Cayenne and Madagascar.
Perhaps the most successful of all Colbert's reforms was the creation of a French navy. He found France in 1669 with a few old hulks, and provided her in three years with a fleet of sixty ships of the line and forty frigates. The
mercantile marine was also developed, and boun ties were giveji on ships built in France. Col bert revised the Civil Code, introduced a code of marine law, as well as the so-called Code Noir for the colonies. Statistical tables of the popu lation were first made out by his orders. Men of learning and genius found in him a generous patron. The academies of inscriptions, science, and architecture were founded by him. In short, be appears as the promoter of industry. com merce, art, science, and literature—the founder of a new epoch in France. Notwithstanding his remarkable ingenuity, the unbounded extrava gance of his master forced him to raise money in ways objectionable to his reason, and to main tain war taxes in time of peace. The last years of his life were a constant struggle to find money for Louis's ruinous wars, and he died Septem ber 6, 1683, bitterly disappointed because his great services were but ill appreciated by the King, whose confidence in Colbert had been un dermined by the favorite Louvois. The people of Paris, enraged at the oppressive taxes, would have torn his dead body to pieces, but for the intervention of the military and his burial by night. He left large estates in France. and some of his offices descended to his sous, one of whom became Minister of Marine and another Superin tendent of Buildings. A third was made Arch bishop of Rouen. It is not the least of Colbert's merits that he saw the wisdom of Richelieu's tolerant course toward the Huguenots, and re strained the King from that fatal policy of persecution which began with the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (q.v.) soon after the great Mmister's death. Among Colbert's posthumous papers were found Memoires sur les affaires de France (c.1663), and a fragment, Particularites secretes de in vie du Roy, which have been pub lished several times.
Consult: Climent, Lie de Colbert (Paris, 1846) ; id./Lettres. instructions, et mdmoircs de Colbert (9 vols., Paris, 1861-82) ; id.. Histoire de Colbert et son administration, edited by Mme. Clement (Paris, 1874) : Gourdault. Col bert, ministry de Louis _Y/1". (Tours, 1885). Sargent, Economic Policy of Colbert (London, 1899), contains a bibliography of works relat ing to Colbert and his time. See FRANCE; LOUIS XIV.