and customs regulations tending to throw the carrying-trade into
French hands, and so to encourage the building of French shipping, by
which the home and colonial products should be carried back and forth;
colonial administration and development, by which a far-off market
might be continually growing up to be monopolized by the home trade;
treaties with foreign States favoring French trade, and imposts on
foreign ships and products tending to break down that of rival
nations,--all these means, embracing countless details, were employed
to build up for France (1) Production; (2) Shipping; (3) Colonies and
Markets,--in a word, sea power. The study of such a work is simpler
and easier when thus done by one man, sketched out by a kind of
logical process, than when slowly wrought by conflicting interests in
a more complex government. In the few years of Colbert's
administration is seen the whole theory of sea power put into practice
in the systematic, centralizing French way; while the illustration of
the same theory in English and Dutch history is spread over
generations. Such growth, however, was forced, and depended upon the
endurance of the absolute power which watched over it; and as Colbert
was not king, his control lasted only till he lost the king's favor.
It is, however, most interesting to note the results of his labors in
the proper field for governmental action--in the navy. It has been
said that in 1661, when he took office, there were but thirty armed
ships, of which three only had over sixty guns. In 1666 there were
seventy, of which fifty were ships of the line and twenty were
fire-ships; in 1671, from seventy the number had increased to one
hundred and ninety-six. In 1683 there were one hundred and seven ships
of from twenty-four to one hundred and twenty guns, twelve of which
carried over seventy-six guns, besides many smaller vessels. The order
and system introduced into the dock-yards made them vastly more
efficient than the English. An English captain, a prisoner in France