despised free labor that peasants owed to their lords He was a gifted financier and administrator, but he found it exceedingly difficult to control Louis XIV’s extravagant spending, which often brought French to the brink of bankruptcy A mercantilist intent on market reforms, Colbert expanded commerce and maintained a positive trade balance He also pushed for protective tariffs and subsidies and introduced government control over commerce and trade in 1644 with price and quality controls He declared more than 100 edicts to govern guilds With an eye toward the world market, he introduced the luxurious silk trade, Venetian glass blowing, and Flemish cloth trades to France Colbert initiated massive roadwork projects and had the Canal of Languedoc built to facilitate easier commercial communication His model factories used specific production standards to ensure quality along with volume He closely supervised colonization costs by establishing the French East Indian Company and the French West India Company In 1669, Colbert became marine minister He ordered arsenals and harbors to be built including the ports of Rochefort and Brest He immediately wrote new navigation laws and then instituted the merchant marine and the French navy To improve the navy’s training and patriotism, he established naval schools and instituted a system of classes for the service to ensure loyalty Every seaman would provide six months of service once within a four-year period in which he would receive full pay and then receive half-pay and a pension when these conditions were met To fill up the ranks, Colbert used condemned criminals, North American Indians, and slaves to serve in the navy A patriot of France, Colbert declared new codes to centralize power in the monarchy These included a civil code in 1667, a criminal code in 1670, a commercial code in 1772, a marine code in 1681, and colonial codes in 1685 Because he believed in the superiority of French art and science, his avid support of these institutions led him personally to found at least four major prestigious French academies Although Colbert had dealt with various challenges with the extravagant King Louis XIV, the king’s decision to declare war on the Netherlands in 1672 forced him to change some of his basic policies For example, he had no choice but to raise funds for the war by increasing taxes, selling office, and borrowing money Despite Colbert’s track record prior to the war, these unpopular policies created strong dissent Moreover, he had never really gained much support within court circles, prob- Columbian exchange 83 ably because of the power he wielded For all his efforts to make improvements at all levels of France, he was not rewarded with the appreciation of his countrymen Still, most historians consider him a great French statesman Colbert died on September 6, 1683 Further reading: Cole, Charles W Colbert and a Century of French Mercantilism Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1964; Meyer, Jean Colbert Paris: Hachette, 1981; Murat, Inès Colbert Vervier: Marabout, 1984; Sargent, Arthur J The Economic Policy of Colbert New York: B Franklin, 1968; Trout, Andrew P Jean Baptiste Colbert Boston, MA: Twayne Publishers, 1978 Annette Richardson Columbian exchange Two ecological systems, evolved for thousands of years in near total isolation from each other, suddenly thrust together, flooding each side with the organisms of the other over the course of nearly five centuries—this is the concept of the Columbian exchange, a term coined by historian Alfred W Crosby in 1972 to describe the biological intermingling of the Old World and New World in the centuries following the first contacts of Europeans, Africans, and indigenous Americans Encompassing all classes of animals, plants, and microbes, and the attendant cultural and social transformations they engendered, the Columbian exchange forever transformed the face of the planet and represents one of the most important consequences of the European encounter with the Americas Plants comprised one broad category of this centurieslong biotic exchange In 1951, Russian botanist Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov listed 640 of humanity’s most important cultigens Of these, more than 500 originated in the Americas Among the most important staple crops of the Western Hemisphere to make their way to Europe, Africa, and beyond were maize, beans (of many varieties), potatoes and sweet potatoes, squashes and pumpkins, peanuts, and manioc (cassava) Also important were the papaya, guava, avocado, pineapple, tomato, chili peppers of many varieties, and cacao Maize cultivation originated in Mesoamerica around 5000 b.c.e before spreading to both South and North America at least 1,000 years before the European arrival The most important staple crop of the Americas, maize soon became one of the most important cultigens in both Europe and Africa Beans, of which there are more than a thousand species, formed one pillar of the maize-beans-squash triad of staple crops common