What made this inadequacy absolutely certain was the
Citations (1)
- The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers whole source · open book
Even by the later stages of Charles V’s reign, therefore, government revenues had been mortgaged for years in advance; in 1543, 65 percent of ordinary revenue had to be spent paying interest on the juros already issued. The more the crown’s “ordinary” income became alienated, the more desperate was its search for extraordinary revenues and new taxes. The silver coinage, for example, was repeatedly debased with copper vellon.
chapter: Strengths and Weaknesses of the Habsburg Bloc