French statesman (1619–1683)
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He turned Louis XIV's France into an economic machine: tariffs to choke imports, royal factories to replace them, a merchant navy to grab colonial trade. The system—Colbertism—made the state the engine of commerce, and the cost was baked in.
Born in Reims in 1619, Colbert rose to Intendant of Finances in May 1661, then took the new role of Controller-General after Nicolas Fouquet's arrest for embezzlement ended the old office. He set about remaking the domestic economy: founding the Manufacture royale de glaces de miroirs in 1665 to kill Venetian glass imports, which he banned in 1672 once French production could stand alone; pulling Flemish weaving expertise into royal tapestry works at Gobelins and Beauvais; issuing over 150 edicts to control the guilds. He pushed the French East India Company into foreign markets for coffee, su…
Sourced, dated quotes from Jean-Baptiste Colbert
The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to procure the largest quantity of feathers with the least possible amount of hissing.
It is simply, and solely, the abundance of money within a state [which] makes the difference in its grandeur and power.
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