Mercantilism, the collection of governmental policies that regulated economic- mainly commercial - activities, by and for the state, that spread throughout Europe, especially in France, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. This theory held that a nation’s international power was based upon it’s wealth, specifically it’s gold and silver supply. The mercantilist theory, also known as Colbertism or Bullionism, that swept though France had a major impact upon its changing domestic and foreign policies throughout the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, and was geared toward strengthening the economic vitality of the state at the expense of one’s real or potential enemies. The three main architects of French mercantile policies, the economic side of absolutism, were Maximillian de Bethune, Duke of Sully ( 1560-1641), Armand du Plessis, Cardinal Richelieu (1585-1642), and Jean-Baptist Colbert (1619-1683). Henry IV’s great economic advisor, the Duke of Sully, laid the foundation for mercantilism in the French economy by recognizing the importance of commercial activities and overseas trade, as well as state encouraged economic growth and expansion. Sully, during his lifetime, proved himself as a financial genius within the court of Henry IV of France, and in the twelve short years before Henry’s death in 1610, Sully had restored the public order in France and defined the basis for economic prosperity, with the government growing into one that was progressive and promising by standards of the time. Sully was able to reduce the royal debt by reviving the paulette tax on people who purchased financial and judicial offices. Sully, implementing the concepts of merchantilism, was one of the first French officials to establish the importance of overseas trade, and from this, he was able to subsidize the French Company for Trade with the West Indies in support of a more favorable balance of trad...
