Note 11 — Chapter IV · LA SALLE AND THE GREATER NEW FRANCE.
Reading edition
Colbert had troubles of his own in trying to provide money for the extravagances of his king, Louis XIV. Colbert was the son of a merchant of Rheims, a hard-working, economical minister, a hater of waste and profusion. He was a marvellous administrator; in ten years he doubled the king’s revenues. But his factories and model farms, his canals and his colonies, his fleet, his finance could not bring money in as fast as Louis could spend it. Colbert was at once Chancellor of the Exchequer, Minister of Agriculture, Director of the Board of Trade, Chief Lord of the Admiralty, Home Secretary and Colonial Secretary. It was in this last capacity that he had special connection with New France.