ABSTRACT
Jean-Baptiste Colbert and Louis XIV are closely associated with the concept of mercantile protectionism. Some historians of economy and government have characterized the 22-year ministry of Colbert (roughly 1661-1683) as a period of great building, culture and industrial expansion, and some as an economic failure.2 This chapter shows that this is a simplistic and misleading characterization of the early reign of Louis XIV. Indeed, while Colbert did follow a policy of mercantilism, often to the economic detriment of his projects, he also made innovations to statecraft that had a wide-ranging influence on European political culture and the growth of political economy as the basis of government in Europe in despotic, parliamentary and republican governments alike. Colbert developed an approach that deployed economic expertise in administration. As such, he was a forerunner of figures such as Turgot and Adam Smith, and not necessarily their antithesis. By insisting on detailed financial knowledge, Colbert created a new, economic culture at the heart of the state.
