JEAN-BAPTISTE COLBERT
(29 August 1619 – 6 September 1683)
Jean-Baptiste Colbert was born in Reims and died in Paris, France. He was a French politician who served as the Minister of Finances of France from 1665 to 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV. His relentless hard work and thrift made him an esteemed minister. He achieved a reputation for his work of improving the state of French manufacturing and bringing the economy back from the brink of bankruptcy. Colbert worked to create a favourable balance of trade and increase France's colonial holdings.
Colbert's market reforms included the foundation of the Manufacture "royale de glaces de miroirs" (royal ice mirrors) in 1665 to supplant the importation of Venetian glass (forbidden in 1672) and to encourage the technical expertise of Flemish cloth manufacturing in France.
He also founded royal tapestry works at Gobelins and supported those at Beauvais. Colbert worked to develop the domestic economy by raising tariffs and by encouraging major public works projects. Colbert also worked to ensure that the French East India Company had access to foreign markets, so that they could always obtain coffee, cotton, dyewoods, fur, pepper, and sugar. In addition, Colbert founded the French merchant marine.
Colbert issued more than 150 edicts to regulate the guilds. One such law had the intention of improving the quality of cloth. The edict declared that if the authorities found a merchant's cloth unsatisfactory on three separate occasions, they were to tie him to a post with the cloth attached to him.
Colbertism
Colbertism is an economic and political doctrine of the seventeenth century, created by Jean-Baptiste Colbert. Colbertism is a variant of mercantilism and is more a collection of economical practices than a true current of economic thought.
Colbert's central principle was the wealth and the economy of France should serve the state. Drawing on the ideas of mercantilism, he believed state intervention was needed to secure the largest part of limited resources. To accumulate gold, a country always had to sell more goods abroad than it bought. Colbert sought to build a French economy that sold abroad and bought domestically.
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