How Successful Were Colbert’s Reforms in Strengthening the French Economy in the years 1661-1683 Jean-Baptise Colbert was a Royal advisor to the king. He was later made the Minister of Finance in France in 1665. While he was one of the King’s royal advisors he made several reforms to try and strengthen the French economy. The result of these reforms were mixed. Before 1661 the French economy was in ruins. The economy had been greatly damaged by the 30 years war and there was also great corruption among the nobility.
Colbert knew to get the French economy moving again he had to create and protect french industries, restrict imports and encourage exports. He did this by endlessly regulating and supervising what came in and what went out of the country. He tried to make French industry especially in luxury items, the first in Europe. He was partially successful with this and France was known for making certain luxury items, for example tapestry and porcelain. This had a positive effect on the economy as France was seen to make high quality products that were desirable.
To get France’s internal and external trade going again it was clear that other factors of industry needed to be reformed. Before Colbert’s reforms transporting goods across France was costly and tedious. Many duties had to be paid as you moved from one part of France to another and by the time the product had reached it’s destination it had already lost a significant amount of it’s value. Colbert replaced this complicated system with a simple import and export system. This was successful and trade and industry increased as now it was far more efficient.
The Essay on French University Reform
It is on Thursday eight of November when the professor arrived to teach in one of higher institution of learning to find only four out of a class of approximately fifty students sited in the classroom waiting for their right to education. But again to the astonishment of the lecturer the door had been locked by the janitors, no furniture that were inside; undoubtedly concluded that was going to be ...
For luxury products to be exported the transport system in France was in a desperate need of reform. Colbert knew to get products to their destination quickly and efficiently new roads, canals and ports were needed to be built. This was successful in strengthening the economy as it provided employment for people which meant more money was given to the government by taxation, it also meant trade and industry was on the rise which helps to strengthen the overall economy. However it was not always easy for Colbert to get sponsors to fund these developments.
The nobility were often not interested in investing in industry as they viewed it as ‘beneath them’. It was also hard for Colbert to gain interest and support from the King himself, he was not too concerned about where his money came from as long as he had it. Also, even though Colbert was set on getting France’s economy back on it’s feet, there was a factor that would have helped him do so that he seemed to foolishly overlook. This was agricultural production, there was a lack of it in France as land was often bought as a status rather than an investment.
However if the agriculture of france was booming that could have dramatically aided the road to economic recovery. However it cannot be ignored that Colbert had some successful reforms regarding Industry. To guarantee the standard of workmanship to create high quality products, Colbert encouraged foreign workers to bring their expertise to France. He then introduced regulations for every kind of manufacture and imposed severe punishments for counterfeiting and short comings.
However it was not always easy to compete with the high standard of trading products that were being produced in other parts of Europe. He had to deal with a lot of competition from the Dutch and also the English. Colbert dealt with this competition through the trading companies, the French East India and West India companies which were founded in 1664 and were followed by others for trade with the eastern Mediterranean with northern Europe however, these were not entirely successful and even though they had high hopes their existence was somewhat precarious.
The Essay on French And Dutch Compar And Contrast
Even though the French and the Dutch arrived in North America almost seventy years apart, (the French in 1541 and the Dutch in 1609) their colonization efforts and relations with the Native Americans were similar. Both countries came to North America to establish permanent settlements. In doing this, both France and The Netherlands became very involved in the fur trade, which meant becoming very ...
An example of an extremely unsuccessful reform by Colbert is his tariffs of foreign goods. The idea was to make foreign goods more expensive so that the people of France would not be able to afford any products that were produced overseas. This in theory should boost internal industry whilst providing extra money for the King however in response to this, the dutch imposed 50% duties on all French luxury items such as wine and a 20% duties in french salt. This was extremely unsuccessful because it resulted in war breaking out between the French and the Dutch in 1672. This obviously did not trengthen the economy as war is a very expensive thing to go into especially when you are against a country that is as powerful as the Dutch were in that time. The Arguably most significant reform from Colbert was the reform of the Navy. It was clear that France need to build up it’s naval power to compete with the other powerful countries in Europe such as the Dutch. The French navy grew from 6 or 8 old galleys and between 20 to 30 sailing vessels to 199 ships. This reform was a success in strengthening the economy as it provided employment for the French people which meant more money was given to the government.
Also for the ships to set sail new ports were needed to be built this again created more employment for people. In 1683 we find Colbert writing that the people of France, after twenty years of his mercantilist policies, were still struggling with poverty and famines that would effect France from time to time. This is clear evidence that his reforms were entirely successful. However it cannot be ignored that Colbert made great improvements to the infrastructure, Naval power and standard of goods that were made in France. Overall Colbert’s reforms were a mix of successes and failures in strengthening the french economy.
