Unforgettable Jean Baptiste Colbert: A Child of his time

By Anthony Kila

Anthony Kila is a Jean Monnet professor of Strategy and Development. He is currently Centre Director at CIAPS; the  Centre for International Advanced and Professional Studies, Lagos, Nigeria. He is a regular commentator on the BBC and he works with various organisations on International Development projects across Europe, Africa and the USA.

Jean Baptiste Colbert is one of those who made their way to the list of unforgettables not for ideas but for practice. Jean Baptiste Colbert did not sit to put together a body of thoughts or ideas. He did not write essays nor teach in classrooms; Jean Baptiste Colbert simply got power and used it based on what he believed to be the best way to solve the problem of his times. He followed the prevailing theory of his era: Mercantilism. His practice and the success he attained for France, however, turned him into a reference point in 17th Century Europe.

You might like or loathe him, but no one can reasonably argue against the case that Jean Baptiste Colbert brought immense wealth and even political power to the France of his era. So much was his influence then and so much is his influence now that many continue to use the term “Colbetism” as a synonym and or a variation of mercantilism. His famous musing of around 1675, that “The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least possible amount of hissing” is still quoted and referenced by theorists, strategists and advocates as introductions on their positions to amend, promote or eliminate a tax policy.

Whilst we are at it. Let us remind ourselves that the Hiss Factor for a tax can be determined by multiplying the number of people that have to pay such tax. That way, a tax on something everyone uses (like fuel tax) will have a high Hiss Factor, whereas a tax on something not related to what everyone is involved in (such as capital tax) will have a low Hiss Factor.

Jean Baptiste Colbert was a Finance Minister from 1665 to 1683 to King Louis XIV. Yes, the one who made the then perceived as bold, but now considered infamous statement, “L’État, c’est moi” (“I am the State”). He came in as minister at a time France had little money but needed a lot of money to fund the excesses of her king, his court and colonial expansion through military campaigns. Thanks to these three major expenditures, France was on the verge of bankruptcy. Jean Baptiste Colbert made his legacy by saving France through his efforts to help grow the manufacturing industry, expand colonial spread and increase the balance of trade.

Jean Baptiste Colbert was born in Reims in 1661 to a family of merchants. His father, Nicolas Colbert, an ambitious man, who wanted the best for his son, was also an administrator. He sent the young Jean Baptiste to work under some powerful family and figures of the time, bankers and lawyers, a sort of apprenticeship that shaped Jean Baptiste Colbert into a hardworking and rather detailed, determined and very ambitious administrator. Through a series of personal connections and private recommendations, Jean Baptiste Colbert’s career grew from good to better as he got appointed into several positions of authority and responsibility. It must be said, in each role, Colbert showed determination, commitment and exhibited his hardworking traits. The recommendation that took him to the King’s court as intendent of finance was by Cardinal Mazarini, the very powerful Italian born Chief Minister of France and trusted ally of French Kings who just before dying introduced Jean Baptiste Colbert to Louis XIV with the now famous introduction: “Sire, I owe everything to your Majesty, but I pay my debt by presenting Colbert…”

Jean Baptiste Colbert went to court and was tasked with the duty of managing both private affairs of the King and that of France. He did not see any difference in the two areas and he applied himself with all his strength and determination. In a short period of time, he had covered practically all the important positions in government. He was Construction Minister (1664), Controller General of Finance (1665), Marines Minister (1669). He was authoritarian and authoritative in all the roles he covered.

As Finance Minister and, indeed, overall as a statesman, Jean Baptiste Colbert worked guided by four cardinal points. One was that France did not have money, second was that France had to be wealthy. Third was that the way to make France rich was by getting more and giving less. Fourth was the supremacy of the state. He embarked on heavy taxation and felt more people should be taxed. He also made sure that French companies were supported with finance, people and access to trade, he facilitated the employment of skilled workers from abroad and prohibited French workers from emigrating. They had to build France. Jean Baptiste Colbert also aided colonial expansion. He wanted to compete with other world powers in every sector.

His view was that there were limited resources and that one country’s gain was another one’s loss. He therefore held and made sure that French companies and products were protected. He wanted to sell more and buy less overall. To protect and grow his own side (France) he was willing to subsidize export and tax imports. This naturally created consequential reactions from others who also felt the need to tax French products to protect their own.

Jean Baptiste Colbert in the name of the state and the greater good wanted to regulate what was produced so that France could be self-sufficient and produce the best of all she needed. To foster France’s competitiveness, he had the quality of each product fixed by law. His obsession to increase the wealth of France by taking more from other nations made him focus on export and external trade in general. Even his infrastructures were focused on roads leading to ports. Whilst alive and in office, Colbert was able to personally lead the charge. His personality held subjects and the King of France in line. Without Colbert, France gradually broke loose. The King embarked on a series of destructive wars and the subjects gave steam to a cacophony of bottled tensions and desires that led to the revolution.

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