4.30 Europe: a.d. 1601 to 1700  (Page 12/30)

Upon Mazarin's death Nicolas Fouquet became chief finance minister, but was found to be incredibly corrupt. He was followed by Jean Baptiste Colbert, a remarkably able man who formed a nationally unified system of agriculture, industry, commerce and finance to support the "Grand Monarchy". Paris had already become a fabulous place, surrounded by a ring of markets. Although livestock markets were held twice a week, there might be 3,000 horses in any one day. Every district had its livery stable. (Ref. 292 ) But there was scarcely a year without famine someplace in France. Colbert actually sacrificed agriculture to industry, as he brought in Venetian glassworkers, Swedish iron workers and Dutch cloth-makers. By 1669 there were 44,000 looms in the country. The wealth of the business classes grew, but the condition of the workers became lower than ever on the economic scale. It has often been said that northern France was the industrial area while southern France was wine country. That division is somewhat misleading as witness Languedoc in the heart of the wine country with 450,000 textile workers in 1680 and some 12,000 artisans scattered among the villages of Orleans. (Ref. 292 ) In 1681 the Languedoc canal was completed, connecting the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean via the canal, the Rhone and the Garonne rivers. (Ref. 8 )

By the time of Colbert's death in 1683, France had known 10 years of its greatest prosperity, but it had not been easy. Representing the classical Frank of French heritage, Colbert had had trouble with the more frivolous Gauls. The great nobles refused to invest in his overseas projects and the workmen refused to give up their 60 public holidays a year (not counting Sundays) and there were many strikes. Colbert, himself, worked 15 hours a day, 7 days a week. Lest we think too highly of him, however, it should be noted that he encouraged the slave trade and increased the number of galleys in the French navy from 6 to 40, each containing 200 slave oarsmen. He did not use blacks for these galleys, as he felt that they had no stamina and died too quickly, but used French criminals and captured Turks. (Ref. 147 ) His shipbuilding exploited the forestry resources of the entire kingdom. (Ref. 260 )

This was an age of strict manners and loose morals. Public baths became less frequent than previously both because of the fear of infections, particularly syphilis, and the moral concepts of the Church. Even at the king's court baths were taken only rarely, in cases of sickness. (Ref. 260 ) Table manners were improving and although the "Sun King" ate with his fingers, forks were now in general use and napkins were in vogue. As with many kings and most European nobles, the monarch had many women, some of whom have become among the famous courtesans of history. But there were also famous and productive men in this era. Artists, playwrights (such as Moliere), scultpors, literary men and scientists all thrived in this glorious period of France. We shall speak of Huygens, Descartes, and others in the separate science summary at the end of this chapter. The science of surgery was elevated in France after Felix operated successfully on King Louis XIV's fistula. It was decreed to be a liberal art and its exponents began to assume a high rank in French society. (Ref. 53 ) There were 24 medical schools in France, of which 4 were dominant - Montpellier, Paris, Toulouse and Strasbourg (Ref. 125 ), but it must be admitted that in general medicine was bad. Infant mortality, helped by the physicians' bleeding, purging and emetics, was appalling. (Ref. 147 ) It seems strange that as late as this 17th century the muddy Seine was the chief water source for the city of Paris and no purification system was present. Water was sold by carriers who extolled its virtues, but it was an admitted purgative and, of course, unpleasant for foreigners. (Ref. 260 ) Religion was an important phase of life and as important as politics is now. One of the scientist-mathematicians of the age was also one of the prominent figures in the great religious furors of the time. Blaise Pascal at age 11 had already composed a treatise on vibrating bodies and at 19 he contrived a computing machine. Later he came close to inventing the calculus, but by that time he was also embroiled in the intra-faith controversy between Jansenism and Jesuitism. Blase's "Provincial Letters" became the strongest Jansenist denunciation of the Jesuit posture. In a sense, Jansenism, in its reformation attitude with the Catholic Church, was the final effort of the Reformation in France.