The indirect taxes, which were at that time called _fermes generales_ (farmings-general), amounted to thirty-seven millions during the first two years of Colbert's administration, and rose to sixty-four millions at the time of his death.
"I should be apprehensive of going too far, and that the prodigious augmentations of the _fermes_ (farmings) would be very burdensome to the people," wrote Louis XIV.

in 1680.

The expenses of recovering the taxes, which had but lately led to great abuses, were diminished by half.

"The bailiffs generally, and especially those who are set over the recovery of talliages, are such terrible brutes that, by way of exterminating a good number of these, you could not do anything more worthy of you than suppress those," wrote Colbert to the criminal magistrate of Orleans.
"I am at this moment promoting two suits against the collectors of talliages, in which I expect at present to get ten thousand crowns' damages, without counting another against an assessor's officer, who wounded one Grimault, the which had one of his daughters killed before his eyes, his wife, another of his daughters, and his female servant wounded with swords and sticks, the writ of distrainment being executed whilst the poor creature was being buried." The bailiffs were suppressed, and the king's justice was let loose not only against the fiscal officers who abused their power, but also against tyrannical nobles.

Masters of requests and members of the Parliament of Paris went to Auvergne and Velay and held temporary courts of justice, which were called _grands jours_.