But of this," added the King, with whimsical pathos for an account-book, "we will not speak at present, as the matter is so entirely impossible." He then proceeded to enter the various items of expense which were to be met during the two years; such as so many millions due to the Fuggers (the Rothschilds of the sixteenth century), so many to merchants in Flanders, Seville, and other places, so much for Prince Doria's galleys, so much for three years' pay due to his guards, so much for his household expenditure, so much for the tuition of Don Carlos, and Don Juan d'Austria, so much for salaries of ambassadors and councillors--mixing personal and state expenses, petty items and great loans, in one singular jumble, but arriving at a total demand upon his purse of ten million nine hundred and ninety thousand ducats.
To meet this expenditure he painfully enumerated the funds upon which he could reckon for the two years.

His ordinary rents and taxes being all deeply pledged, he could only calculate from that source upon two hundred thousand ducats.

The Indian revenue, so called, was nearly spent; still it might yield him four hundred and twenty thousand ducats.

The quicksilver mines would produce something, but so little as hardly to require mentioning.

As to the other mines, they were equally unworthy of notice, being so very uncertain, and not doing as well as they were wont.
The licences accorded by the crown to carry slaves to America were put down at fifty thousand ducats for the two years.