Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Memoirs, 1680

  • Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619–1683) was a seventeenth-century French political figure
    who was integral to the development of absolutism under the reign of Louis XIV,
    France’s “Sun King.”

  • Colbert reformed the French state’s fiscal policies under a system known as colbertisme.

  • During the twenty years immediately following the death of Henry IV, the
    superintendents of the finances either gorged themselves with wealth—all the other
    financial officials following their example—or, if they were upright men, they did not
    have sufficient penetration to perceive the abuses, malfeasance, thefts, and waste which went on under cover of their authority, and even under their eyes, so that the state was always in need.

  • But since the expiration of these twenty years the change in the character of the
    persons chosen to fill this post has not altered the fate of the state; on the contrary, the most pernicious maxims took root in their minds and controlled their conduct and, in the course of time, assumed such strength that they have come to be considered fixed and unquestionable, and it seems to be assumed that they are not endangering the state.

  • The secret of finance consists solely in making and unmaking, in bestowing
    emoluments and new honors on old officers, in creating new offices of every kind and
    character, in alienating rights and sources of income, withdrawing these and then
    reestablishing them once more

  • Consuming for current expenses the ordinary and extraordinary receipts of the
    two years following; Giving prodigious discounts for advances in cash, not only in raising exceptional revenue, but even in the collection of the ordinary revenue, more than half of which is consumed by discounts and interest on money advanced; Giving the opportunity to the treasurers of the public funds, other financial agents, and farmers of the revenue of making immense profits

  • All these pernicious maxims were so firmly established that the most able and
    enlightened persons connected with the government of the state thought that in a matter so delicate it would be more dangerous to try a new policy than to submit to the existing evils.

  • It is not astonishing that superintendents of finance regulated their conduct by
    these maxims, since they found in them two considerable advantages:

  • The first was that in this confusion they enjoyed plenty of opportunity to enrich themselves and to make important gifts to their relatives and friends and to all the persons of the court whose good offices they had need of in order to maintain themselves in all the disorder

  • The second, that they were persuaded that this policy rendered their services necessary and that no resolution to remove them could be considered.

QUESTIONS
1. What, according to Colbert, were the greatest weaknesses of Henry IV’s financial
policies?
2. How would Colbert promote a more efficient financial system?
3. What is the purpose of enlisting new tax collectors, and what are the benefits for
these people? How would this strengthen the power of the state?