kingdom this history has no concern, beyond the incidental mention
that production, both agricultural and manufacturing, received his
careful attention; but upon the sea a policy of skilful aggression
upon the shipping and commerce of the Dutch and English quickly began,
and was instantly resented. Great trading companies were formed,
directing French enterprise to the Baltic, to the Levant, to the East
and West Indies; customs regulations were amended to encourage French
manufactures, and to allow goods to be stored in bond in the great
ports, by which means it was hoped to make France take Holland's place
as the great warehouse for Europe, a function for which her
geographical position eminently fitted her; while tonnage duties on
foreign shipping, direct premiums on home built ships, and careful,
rigorous colonial decrees giving French vessels the monopoly of trade
to and from the colonies, combined to encourage the growth of her
mercantile marine. England retaliated at once; the Dutch. more
seriously threatened because their carrying-trade was greater and
their home resources smaller, only remonstrated for a time; but after
three years they also made reprisals. Colbert, relying on the great
superiority of France as an actual, and still more as a possible
producer, feared not to move steadily on the grasping path marked out;
which, in building up a great merchant shipping, would lay the broad
base for the military shipping, which was being yet more rapidly
forced on by the measures of the State. Prosperity grew apace. At the
end of twelve years everything was flourishing, everything rich in the
State, which was in utter confusion when he took charge of the
finances and marine.

"Under him," says a French historian, "France grew by peace as she had
grown by war.... The warfare of tariffs and premiums skilfully
conducted by him tended to reduce within just limits the exorbitant