Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/303

 CHAPTER XXI LOUIS XIV The aggressive policy which is the most marked feature of the long reign of Louis xiv. did not at once develop itself. The young king had great ambitions ; he intended to i. Louis XIV. make himself a good deal more than the arbiter of **&**- Europe. But his first business was not active aggression. Mazarin left behind him a group of exceedingly efficient ministers, but none who had been marked out to take his place ; it was, how- ever, by Mazarin's own advice that the dangerous Fouquet was removed from the ministry of finance and was replaced by Colbert. For some time Colbert was the moving spirit; he reorganised the finances, and nursed a number of industries into active life by a vigorous protective policy. That is to say the state paid for the creation of industries. In the course of time that came to mean that, foreign com- petition being completely barred, the French producers lost all incentive to cheapen production, and the public suffered accord- ingly. But at the outset a start was given to industries which could not have entered the arena of competition unaided, but, once established, would have been able to hold their own. For the time being the protective policy was accompanied by a great increase of prosperity. It was accompanied also by an energetic development of commerce. England and Holland had set the example of encouraging great commercial companies to which extensive privileges were conceded by the commerce government. The example was now followed in and France, where an East India Company, a West Colonisation. India Company, and an African Company were formed. But 291