Colbert, JEAN BAPTISTE, one of the greatest French statesmen, was born at Rheims in 1619. Before he was twenty years of age he obtained a post in the War Office under Le Tellier, and at once began a very successful career. In 1651 he entered the service of the great minister Mazarin, who soon employed him in most important affairs of state. On his death-bed Mazarin warmly recommended Colbert to Louis XIV. 'I owe you everything,' Mazarin is reported to have said to the king, 'but I pay my debt to your majesty in giving you Colbert.' It was in 1661 that Colbert became the chief-minister of Louis XIV. He found the finances in a ruinous condition, and immediately began his reforms. Fouquet, the superintendent under Mazarin, was found guilty of impoverishing the state by his maladministration, and imprisoned for life. The farmers of the state-revenues were forced to yield up the resources of the crown of which they had fraudulently possessed themselves. The debts of the state Colbert reduced by arbitrary composition. In all the departments of finance he introduced order and economy as far as he could. So complete and thorough was the change which Colbert effected, that in ten years the annual revenue had risen to 104 million livres, of which 27 were spent in collection and administration; whereas, when the management of the finances was intrusted to him, the revenue amounted to only 84 million livres, and 52 millions were absorbed in its collection. The financial reforms of Colbert, however, only served as a basis for a thorough reorganisation of the entire administration. He took measures to improve agriculture. Commerce was extended, roads and canals—including that of Languedoc—were made. In every way he sought to apply the protective system then in vogue to promote the industries of France. He organised anew the colonies in Canada, Martinique, and St Domingo, and founded others at Cayenne and Madagascar. He found France with a few old rotten ships, and in a few years had provided her with one of the strongest fleets in the world, with well-equipped arsenals and a splendid body of seamen. Colbert improved the civil code, introduced a marine code of laws, and drew up the so-called Code Noir for the colonies.
While attending to material interests, he did not neglect the arts and sciences; all men of learning and genius found in Colbert a generous patron. The Academies of Inscriptions, Science, and Architecture were founded by him. In short, Colbert was the patron of industry, commerce, art, science, and literature—the founder of a new epoch in France. His aim was to raise the strength of France by developing every side of the national life. In this he entirely succeeded during the early part of the reign of Louis XIV., but his work was not destined to last; the wars of Louis and the extravagance of his court undid all that had been accomplished by Colbert. The rigorous order and precise rules which he established might be beneficial in such hands as his own, but when abused by a selfish or incompetent despotism, could only have the most mischievous results. Colbert died in 1683, bitterly disappointed at seeing the failure of his plans for the regeneration of France. The people were so enraged with the oppressive taxes, for which they blamed him, that his corpse had to be removed from his house by night in order to avoid their fury. Colbert had indeed carried out many measures that were arbitrary and oppressive. He had served a despotic king, who posed as the representative of all that was fair in the government, and left the disagreeable tasks of administration to his ministers. See his Lettres, Instructions et Mémoires (8 vols. 1862–82); Lives by Clément (2 vols. 1874), Neymarck (1877), and Gourdanlt (6th ed. Tours, 1885); and the Comte de Cosnac's Mazarin et Colbert (1892).