LOUIS XIV; COLBERT, Jean-Baptiste.

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Ordonnances de Louis XIV, roy du France et de Navarre, Données à Saint Germain en Laye au mois de Mars 1673. First edition of this important codification of French commercial law, in a contemporary limp vellum binding. One of Colbert's principal legal achievements, the Commercial Ordinance imposes uniform legislative practices for commercial cases, introduces standardized regulations for business practices, and makes interest upon interest illegal.Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683), Louis XIV's chief minister for 20 years, dominated French legislation in the mid-17th century. As part of his vast programme of absolutist reform, he drove a major codification and standardization of French law. The overdue need for legal reform combined with a spirit of absolutist uniformity, as idiosyncratic local systems were brought under a centrally imposed framework. Bluche claims that "it would provide a model for the enlightened despots of the next century" (pp. 136-7).

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