Jean-Baptiste Colbert

Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619–1683) was a French statesman born in Reims to a merchant family. In 1652 he managed the affairs of the exiled Mazarin, to whom he reported that less than half the taxes paid reached the king.

Recommended to Louis XIV by Mazarin, he became intendant of finances in 1661, helped destroy Nicolas Fouquet, and was Controller-General of Finances from 1665 and Navy Secretary from 1669.

His mercantilist program, later called Colbertism, reformed taxation, set up royal manufactures, chartered the East India Company in 1664, and expanded France's navy and colonies. He founded the Academy of Sciences in 1666 and died in 1683.