ABSTRACT
Colbert was driven off course after 1672 by the demands of war. His most promising schemes were starved of resources. Colbert was only allowed independence of judgement and action in his own economic sphere. Colbert’s tariff policy was increasingly unpopular with French merchants who saw benefits in the free interchange of goods that the minister seemed to ignore. In 1659 Colbert had presented Mazarin with a memorandum concerning the financial ills of the state. Its key proposal was the abolition of 20,000 purchasable offices. The importing of foreign specialists had a large part in Colbert’s design: textile craftsmen and paper makers from Holland, glass blowers from Venice. Miners were recruited in Sweden to assist in the development of the copper and lead mines of the south; engineers in England to construct the new dockyards and arsenals at Toulon, Rochefort and Brest.
