Introduction -- 1 Louis XIV, Roi-Bureaucrate -- 2 Torcy's Preparation for and Rise to Power -- 3 Mentorship and Testing -- 4 The Department of Secretary of State Torcy -- 5 The Department's Structures and Personnel -- 6 The Triumph of the Commis -- 7 Finances and Rewards -- 8 Preserving, Deploying, and Controlling Information -- 9 Ambassadors in Paris and Abroad 354 Information and the Formulation of Foreign Policy -- 10 Conclusion -- 11 Domestic Administration
Summary
Historians and social scientists have long identified bureaucracy as the modern state's foundation and the reign of France's Louis XIV as a model for its development. This book offers a fresh interpretation of bureaucracy through a close examination of the department of the Sun King's last foreign secretary, Jean-Baptiste Colbert de Torcy