Louis XIV

Author: (English) J.H. Shannon, translated by Li Ningyi
Translator: Li Ningyi
Country of Origin:
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2001-01-01
Features: Colbert was Louis XIV's most famous minister. He was the epitome of the new-style civil servant: hardworking, dedicated, and promoted through his loyalty to the king. Before joining Louis XIV's government, he served as the head of the Mazarin family's household and was personally recommended to Louis by Mazarin. Born in 1619, when he was first summoned as a member of the Conseil d'état in 1661, he was twice the age of Louis. Subsequently, he became the director of all royal residences in 1664, followed by Minister of Finance, and then Minister of State for the Navy in 1669. However, despite his diverse roles in the political career, his most significant achievement lay in reforming the kingdom's financial system. In the government sectors he encountered, it would be incorrect to say that he handled matters with radical views. In terms of finance, he adopted a policy of thrift to increase state revenue. As mentioned earlier, he conducted an investigation in 1667 that exposed nobles who claimed noble status to evade taxes. This action achieved a degree of success, as it not only reduced the number of noble families but also forced those seeking official recognition of their status to pay substantial sums to the treasury. Similarly, under the consideration of this policy of thrift, Colbert reclaimed many royal lands and privileges that had been lost due to leasing, selling, or other factors. He also abolished a large number of useless official titles created by the government since 1630 for profit. The initial revenue from these titles had long been exhausted by the expenditure of their salaries. Colbert was equally ruthless toward investors in state bonds. Although investors invested large sums of money, the government also had to pay considerable interest, so these funds provided little benefit to the state treasury. Colbert abolished half of the annual interest payments and significantly reduced the interest rates on the remaining portion. In addition to thrift, Colbert worked on several aspects to increase taxes. He persuaded the clergy to increase their annual contributions to the treasury (these contributions were known as "free gifts"). He also adjusted the rates of direct head taxes: raising the tax rate for landowners and lowering it for non-landowners, as landowners were capable of bearing the burden. In indirect taxes, Colbert took measures to rationalize the tax farming system, and under the leadership of some United Farms, this policy reached its peak in 1668. Under the tax farming system, domestic tariffs and indirect taxes such as salt, wine, and food taxes were all managed by a single tax farming organization. This reform immediately led to a rapid increase in total tax revenue, allowing Colbert to lower the rate of direct head taxes. All these financial measures, implemented between 1661 and 1671, indeed doubled the king's actual income. Except for the small-scale transfer of power war in 1667–1668, this period was relatively stable for the Kingdom of France. However, this stable order and financial situation were quickly undermined by the Dutch War of 1672–1679 and the increasingly deteriorating international conflicts during the later years of Louis XIV's reign. This does not mean, however, that Colbert opposed war. He understood that war was a common occurrence for kings. As a loyal subject of Louis, he believed his duty was to enhance the glory of the monarchy and thereby protect the security of the state. Therefore, his concern was not whether war would break out but whether the kingdom was prepared for it. His anxiety over the Dutch War was equal to that of Louis himself. This trade conference actually represented a new phase in the growing bureaucratic system of Louis XIV's government. It is not correct to believe that the failure of royal policy during the decline of Louis XIV was due to the lack of strong ministers. The true fact was that the government organization had become too complex and overly dependent on professional officials, even the most capable individuals had to seek approval for their actions. Even Louis XIV himself had become entangled in this bureaucratic web. However, after the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession, the government again struggled to raise sufficient funds without relying on the complex banking system. France once again resorted to short-term emergency measures: selling official positions, forcing existing holders of positions to borrow, controlling the circulation of currency, mortgaging future state taxes, and borrowing heavily from financiers and bankers. The kingdom was filled with government paper money replacing coins, leading to significant inflation. When Louis XIV died, France's national debt exceeded 2 billion livres, and taxes for many years to come had been mortgaged. In the final years of his reign from 1708 to 1715, the position of Minister of Finance was once again held by a member of the Colbert family. Nicolas Desmaretz, the nephew of Colbert, took drastic measures to restore fiscal balance by adopting a policy of deflation. This led to the contraction of trade and agriculture, as people chose to hoard money rather than risk investment. The situation in the kingdom prompted the new Minister of Finance, John Law, to take radical measures to revitalize the economy, namely by promoting the circulation of funds through the intermediary of the state bank. In his memoirs of 1668, Louis XIV explicitly stated that he had temporarily restrained his ambitions to regain victory in war. From the moment the transfer of power war ended, he began planning the Dutch War, aiming for a decisive victory through the Treaty of Aachen. The Dutch were Louis's natural enemies, their republican politics, Calvinist religion, and trade expertise all opposing Louis's divine-right monarchy. However, there was a reasonable strategic justification for his desire to conquer the Dutch: France was committed to strengthening its vulnerable northeastern border, which would inevitably provoke an unfriendly response from the Dutch Republic, as the Dutch feared France would gain control of the Spanish Netherlands. The Triple Alliance of the Dutch Republic, England, and Sweden mediated the transfer of power war, leading Louis to adopt a moderate policy. However, during the Dutch War, he completely abandoned this principle. In 1672, French troops crossed the Rhine through the Bishopric of Liège and entered the territory of the Dutch Republic. They achieved easy victories, and the Dutch parliament immediately demanded peace. Louis XIV demanded unconditional surrender from the Dutch government, thus eliminating any chance of peace. By then, the Dutch had been scattered throughout the country, and William of Orange, ruler of the wealthiest province—Holland—began organizing resistance forces. At the time, the French minister in charge of war was the Marquis de Louvois, who replaced Le Tellier, who had taken a moderate stance after succeeding Louvois. The shock of Louvois's brutal policies led other European powers to prepare to unite against the threat of France. In 1673, Spain, the Holy Roman Emperor, Brandenburg, and Lorraine joined the Dutch alliance, forming a league against France. Louis's earlier efforts to prevent this alliance ultimately failed. Meanwhile, King Charles II of the Stuart dynasty of England had signed the Secret Treaty of Dover with France in 1670 in exchange for joining France's side but withdrew his troops in 1674 due to domestic public opinion. The war between France and Spain lasted four years, during which France achieved several major victories, including the annexation of Franche-Comté on the eastern border in 1674. However, the Dutch resistance proved effective. In the Treaty of Nijmegen in 1678, France returned the vital border fortress of Maastricht, which guarded the gateway to the Dutch Republic, and agreed to abolish the harsh tariff laws established by Colbert in 1667. On the other hand, Louis XIV secured Franche-Comté and many border fortresses, including Condé, Valenciennes, Ypres, and Saint-Omer, on the border between France and the Spanish Netherlands. At the Treaty of Nijmegen, France and the Holy Roman Emperor signed an agreement in February 1679. The agreement stipulated that Louis would retain the strategically important city of Freiburg on the east bank of the Rhine, which could protect Alsace from invasion. The Treaty of Nijmegen marked the successful end of the Dutch War for Louis XIV, but it was not the triumphant victory he had envisioned when he declared war. He knew that conquering the Spanish Netherlands against the Dutch will was impossible, and such aggressive warfare would provoke fierce resistance from his enemies (when Louis XIV revealed his ambition to dominate all of Europe, his enemies resisted his power even more fiercely, with irony, they too adopted aggressive measures, which ultimately helped Louis avoid the most tragic consequences after his defeat in the War of the Spanish Succession). Louis also understood that he must adopt a more discreet and unobtrusive policy to ensure the security of the state. The Conseil d'état was the king's main committee. It handled all important national issues, but later gradually shifted its focus to foreign affairs. The membership was small, ranging from 3 to 5 members, who were necessary to express their opinions. They were not actually in office, and their titles changed with the king's decrees. If a member was suddenly not summoned by the king, he would lose his status as a minister overnight. Traditionally, successive kings had recognized the king's obligation to accept advice, thus weakening Louis XIV's absolute authority. He advised his grandson (Philip V, who became king of Spain in 1700) to demonstrate royal power in two contrasting ways: to listen to the opinions of the various councils, and then to make the final decision personally. Louis believed that professional advice must be taken seriously, but he also believed that the king's sacred right endowed him with additional wisdom and insight, giving him the right to make the final decision. Louis XIV's ministers were more professionally capable than those of previous dynasties. Although his biological sons were descendants of this great noble dynasty, he would not appoint them to government positions solely because of their noble lineage. Instead, he replaced them with the Controller-General of Finance and state ministers with expertise in administration, diplomacy, army, and navy. These professionally capable officials were sometimes mistakenly referred to as the bourgeoisie, a misunderstanding stemming from the upper nobility, who, out of hostility to these rising figures, deliberately belittled them. Louis had a clear understanding of class and status and never appointed non-noble individuals to high-ranking government positions. Thus, although these officials came from lower nobility, once they became members of the royal council, they proved their high status in the court. With such status, these council members and ministers could expect their families' social class to rise rapidly. For example, Colbert, a close confidant and minister of Louis XIV, came from a very insignificant noble family in the region of Reims, but all his daughters became duchesses. Afterward, Protestantism became a forbidden religion, and the government adopted severe measures to enforce this decree, including executing those who resisted. In the decades following the Edict of Nantes in 1685, 10% of the Huguenots, accounting for 10% of France's total population, left the country. Although emigration was not permitted, many Huguenots secretly fled when their pastors were expelled. Those who remained in France secretly practiced their religion or converted to Catholicism, though with little enthusiasm. However, 17 years after the Edict of Nantes was revoked, a Protestant uprising—the Camisard rebellion—broke out in the Cevennes in southeastern France between 1702 and 1705. This critical situation prompted Louis XIV to send one of the most famous officers of his reign, Marshal Villars, to the region to suppress the rebellion through a combination of leniency and force. However, after this uprising, French Protestantism gained a slight resurgence, but it remained officially forbidden until it was legally recognized again in 1787.