Royal
Monogram
Members of the Académie des
sciences with Louis in 1667; in the
background appears the new Paris
Observatory.
important both for its role in ending the war between France and Spain, because many of the claims and objectives of Louis's
foreign policy for the next 50 years would be based upon this marriage, and because it was through this marriage that the Spanish
throne would ultimately be delivered to the House of Bourbon.[32]
Louis XIV was declared to have reached the age of majority on the 7th of September 1651. On the death of
Mazarin, in March 1661, Louis personally took the reins of government and astonished his court by declaring
that he would rule without a chief minister: "Up to this moment I have been pleased to entrust the government
of my affairs to the late Cardinal. It is now time that I govern them myself. You [secretaries and ministers]
will assist me with your counsels when I ask for them. I request and order you to seal no orders except by my
command . . . I order you not to sign anything, not even a passport . . . without my command; to render
account to me personally each day and to favor no one".[33] Capitalizing on the widespread public yearning
for peace and order after decades of foreign and civil strife, the young king consolidated central political
authority at the expense of the feudal aristocracy. Praising his ability to choose and encourage men of talent,
the historian Chateaubriand noted: "it is the voice of genius of all kinds which sounds from the tomb of
Louis".[34]
Louis began his personal reign with administrative and fiscal reforms. In 1661, the treasury verged on
bankruptcy. To rectify the situation, Louis chose Jean-Baptiste Colbert as Controller-General of Finances in
1665. However, Louis first had to neutralize Nicolas Fouquet, the powerful Superintendent of Finances.
Although Fouquet's financial indiscretions were not very different from Mazarin's before him or Colbert's
after him, his ambition worried Louis. He lavishly entertained the king at the opulent château of Vaux-le-
Vicomte, flaunting a wealth which could hardly have accumulated except through embezzlement of government funds.
Fouquet appeared eager to succeed Mazarin and Richelieu in power, and he indiscreetly purchased and privately fortified the
remote island of Belle Île. These acts sealed his doom. Fouquet was charged with embezzlement; the Parlement found him guilty
and sentenced him to exile; and finally Louis altered the sentence to life imprisonment.
Fouquet's downfall gave Colbert a free hand to reduce the national debt through more
efficient taxation. The principal taxes included the aides and douanes (both customs
duties), the gabelle (salt tax), and the taille (land tax). The taille was reduced at first, and
certain tax-collection contracts were auctioned instead of being sold privately to a
favoured few. Financial officials were required to keep regular accounts, revising
inventories and removing unauthorized exemptions: up to 1661 only 10 per cent of income
from the royal domain reached the king. Reform had to overcome vested interests: the
taille was collected by officers of the Crown who had purchased their post at a high price,
and punishment of abuses necessarily lowered the value of the purchase. Nevertheless,
Colbert achieved excellent results, with the deficit of 1661 turning into a surplus by 1666,
with interest on the debt decreasing from 52 million to 24 million livres. The taille was
reduced to 42 million in 1661 and 35 million in 1665, while revenue from indirect taxation
progressed from 26 million to 55 million. The revenues of the royal domain were raised from 80,000 livres in 1661 to 5.5 million
in 1671. In 1661, the receipts were equivalent to 26 million British pounds, of which 10 million reached the treasury. The
expenditure was around 18 million pounds, leaving a deficit of 8 million. In 1667, the net receipts had risen to 20 million pounds