In “The Red Devil” a play written by Antoine Rault there is a conversation between Colbert (Minister of Finance under Louis XIV) and Mazarin. The contents of this exchange have gone into the annals of history > Colbert: “When trying to find money, there is always a moment when messing about is no longer enough. Please, Lord High Treasurer, tell me how one can manage to spend more when already up to one’s neck in debt…” -Mazarin: “When you are a simple mortal, of course, and swamped in debt, you are sent to prison but the State… well the State is a different kettle of fish. The State cannot be thrown in prison. And so the debt increases! Every State does that.” Colbert: “Oh really? Is that what you think? However, we need money and how can you find any when you’ve already devised every imaginable tax?” -Mazarin: “We create others”. Colbert: “We can’t tax the poor more than we do already.” -Mazarin: “Yes, that’s true.” Colbert: «So, what about the rich?» -Mazarin: «We can’t tax the rich either. They would stop spending. A rich person who spends feeds hundreds of poor people». Colbert: “So, what should we do?” -Mazarin: “Colbert, your reasoning is completely illogical! Lots of people are neither one thing nor the other, neither poor, nor rich… French people work in the hope of becoming rich but dreading being poor! Those are the people we should be taxing, more and more! They are the ones! The more you take from them, the more they work to make up for it… That well never runs dry.”
