LOUIS XIV - COLBERT, Jean-Baptiste.

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Edict du Roy, Portant Reglement general pour les Eaux & Forests. A collection of statutes passed by the Sun King, including Colbert's landmark forest ordinance, "a monument of legislative wisdom" (de Colyat, p. 78) which remained in force until the 19th century.Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619-1683) dominated French legislation in his role as Louis XIV's chief minister from 1661 until his death in 1683. Colbert's programme of absolutist reform drove a major standardization of French law. The forestry legislation, bound 20th in this volume, was the product of eight years' work by a 21-man commission. They were charged with securing a stable supply of timber for shipbuilding, largely by eradicating the widespread corruption in the forestry industry. The resulting ordinance codified a mass of medieval laws from Charlemagne onwards, imposed uniform jurisprudence throughout the land, and reformed various minor offences.The other edicts regulate government offices, court jurisdictions, and commercial regulations. The ninth provides that "les Nobles pourront faire le Commerce de Mer, sans deroger a la Noblesse" (the aristocracy will be able to trade at sea without compromising their noble status).All except the first are printed by Frederic Leonard (1624-1711), the royal and parliamentary printer.

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