You have already noted from the reign of King Pedro how much the Kings of Portugal did in order to amass treasure and have wealth available, in order to have ample sums to disburse, whensoever they needed to defend their realms, or otherwise go to war, if they deemed it necessary. You also noted how hard they strove to ensure that the said treasure should never be so depleted that it became necessary to impose taxes on the people. Yet King Fernando strove just as hard to waste his treasure on unnecessary and bootless wars!

He not only spent all the treasure which had been handed down to him by earlier monarchs but he also imposed new taxes on property sales and changed the coinage much to the harm and detriment of all his people. The consequence was that, when the Master took on the task of ruler and defender of the realms, he had no financial resources with which to wage war, nor even to grant favours to those who came forward to help him to mount any kind of defence. When, therefore, everyone realised that, in order to be free from subjection, it was incumbent on them to tackle this huge deficit, they decided to help and serve the Master by providing him with sums of money, and by the city [of Lisbon] promising him a contribution of 100,000 libras, which included 1,000 dobras paid by the Moors and Jews who resided there. These sums were paid to him in small coins and in ‘white’ money, as well as in silver. ‘White’ money was the name given at that time to graves, barbudas and pilartes. These coins were collected by certain people in the parishes. The order went out that any person taking money out of the city would lose it all, and that anyone seizing it from that person would receive one-fifth of it. It was seized from several people who were taking it out clandestinely, and the proceeds were given to the Master.

Apart from this, the Master requested several people from the city and from its district to lend him sums of money, as he believed that they were in a position to do so.