In France, during the 17th century, under the reign of Louis XIV, Colbert, minister of finances in France, was the first man to put France back into the race for Asia. He was aware that, having a major influence on the seas and Asian continent would serve France to become one of the leading european fortunes. By doing so, Colbert envisioned broader objectives than just commerce. They were defined by three factors: geopolitics, the fight against the English and Dutch products, the influence overseas. Commerce, the expansion into Asia, looking to find and extract raw resources, while influencing Asia furthermore. Economic Opportunities, and the use of resources that created what is known as the middle class. These were the ideas that justified …show more content…
Aside from just trading back to France, this could be used as base point, when expanding commercially into Asia. Once strong commercial routes and trading post had been established, it enabled the creation of naval networks throughout the region also allowing the French to support their military presence. On a more long term point of view, France was interested in Asia because by securing a settlement in India, eventually, expansions could be made. By going elsewhere, they could make money from more than one colony, which was the core to their long term development strategy. The french later went into Malaysia, but were not as successful as in …show more content…
They saw that here, they could extract these resources at practically no price, and then refine them for a just as low price, and sell them in France for a lot. One of these resources is very well known: Cotton. The massive plantations in Pondicherry were of great use to the french. In France, medium class clothes lacked. There was either the most high end fine clothes, or simply rags. Cotton clothes were light, simple, and most of all, at an acceptable price. These greatly increased the economy in France, and the middle class was created. Salt was another crucial resource. The french did not know how to extract it, but the indians did. This helped them have huge quantities of salt for free. Not only was salt a food garment, but it was also a great way to preserve meat. All kinds of fish, beef, pork and much more could be kept for much longer. This resulted in everyone bringing more meat, so if it didn’t sell on the first day in the market, it would still be fresh for the next few days. This also helped the economy in France rise because now there was more meat. More meat meant more people to buy them, which meant more money made, and therefore more money to use. These were to very economically helpful raw