Week 3 - Percy Yan

In the article "Colbert and Governmental Control of Industry in Seventeenth Century France" by Abbott Payson Usher, Colbert possessed genuine convictions. Many aspects of his reforms were essentially liberal in character because his administrative reorganization necessarily led him to destroy obsolescent feudal rights and privileges and to remove the numerous impediments to freedom of internal trade that were created by the officials of provinces, towns and villages. According to the article, his position in respect of the merits of individualism and collectivism it is necessary to bear in mind that his day in France was already beginning to feel the stress of competition with England and Holland. There were changes in the valuation of French economic resources that constituted a threat to continued prosperity . Colbert also lived in a region that had reached the height of its development. It was a society characterized by ambitions for the secure social position conferred by land and offices. Industry and commerce were at best means of purchasing social security and neither industry nor trade was expanding rapidly enough to inspire much hope or to foster a general spirit of enterprise and adventure.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1927041