Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 2
The Size of France
The groundwork to lay down the Paris Meridian was initiated during the reign of
King Louis XIV (Debarth 1984). Louis XIV, the Sun King, came to the throne of
France as a boy within a few days of his fifth birthday but took charge in his more
mature years (18 years later in 1661). He established a brilliant court and was a patron
of writers, artists, and intellectuals. In addition, he appointed Jean-Baptiste Colbert as
a minister with wide authority to enhance the status of the King and to develop France
thus restoring its fortunes after a weakening series of wars with Spain.
People
Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683)
Colbert was born into a merchant family of Reims, and as a result of family connections he
was appointed at a very young age to the war office as an inspector of troops, working his
way up to become the personal secretary of the Secretary of War. At the age of 30 he became
a minister of state and starting at 45 he became, in rapid succession, the superintendent of
buildings, controller-general, minister of the marine, minister of commerce, minister of the
colonies and minister of the palace, acquiring power in every department except war.
Colbert served as the minister of finance for 22 years under King Louis XIV. He improved
the French economy, although Louis spent so much (on luxury and war) that France pro-
gressively became poorer. He ruthlessly rooted out corruption in government, introduced a
fairer taxation system, and introduced numerous regulations to protect trade. He improved
the French merchant marine as a means to facilitate international trade and built infrastruc-
ture to improve domestic trade - roads, ports and canals.
Colbert took a great interest in art, intellectual life, and literature. He founded the Academy
of Sciences and the Paris Observatory, enriched the Louvre with hundreds of pictures, and
supported many men of science and letters.
Colbert decided to make an inventory of France, a kind of French equivalent to
the Norman survey of England that produced the Doomsday Book
6
. In 1663 Colbert
sent out orders to the provincial governments to report on everything under their
control, providing maps and other details of every imaginable resource like estates,
6
The Doomsday Book (or Domesday Book
)
was a census of England completed in 1086 for
William the Conqueror. William needed to administer the country he had just conquered in 1066
and to collect appropriate taxes. He sent out census takers to list all the villages and towns, their
inhabitants, their land and their animals. The census still survives and is a valuable historic source.
It became known as the Doomsday Book, because its data were supposed to last until the end of
the world.
