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The Major Problems Of King Louis XIV

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King Louis XIV was born on September 5, 1638, from Anne of Austria and king Louis XIII of France. King Louis then inherited the throne at four years old on May 14, 1643. Louis was assisted by his mother Anne, chief minister and a close friend Cardinal Jules Mazarin. In the year 1654 Louis married his first cousin Marie-Therese daughter of king Philip IV according to history.com. Later when Louis took personal control in 1661 he appointed Jean Baptiste Colbert for the economic affairs. According to World history at KMLA, “The Kingdom of France had a debt of 60 million livres, an enormous sum. Colbert identified the outflow of bullion (gold, silver) as the main cause for the dilemma and the deficit in the trade with the Dutch Republic as one of the major problems to tackle. In order to reduce that, French policy had to support the domestic industry. Colbert made the tax collection system more efficient - at the beginning of his tenure in office, only about 10 % of the taxes collected ended up in the royal treasury; the fugure was raised to 85 % (taxes had been "farmed", i.e. were collected by agents who kept a part of them.” Colbert’s plan was to limit foreign industry and focus more in domestic industry to help reduce the debt and bring more money. Along with this Colbert implanted a tax system that rose significantly over time. According to World history at KMLA, “In a set of measures summarily referred to as MERCANTILISM, Colbert raised IMPORT TARIFFS to discourage imports
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