In this there was a good deal of injustice. Wellington does not always seem to have realized the abject poverty which four years of war had brought upon Portugal. The Regency calculated that, on account of falling revenue caused by the late French invasion, for 1812 they could only count on 12,000,000 _cruzados novos_ of receipts[148]--this silver coin was worth about 2_s._ 6_d._ sterling, so that the total amounted to about £1,500,000. Of this three-fourths, or 9,000,000 cruzados, was set aside for the army, the remainder having to sustain all the other expenses of the State--justice, civil administration, roads, navy, &c. The British subsidy had been raised to £2,000,000 a year, but it was paid with the utmost irregularity: in one month of 1811 the Portuguese treasury had received only £6,000, in another only £20,000, instead of the £166,000 promised[149]. When such arrears accumulated, it was no wonder that the soldiers starved and the magazines ran low. It was calculated that to keep the army up to its full numbers, and to supply all military needs efficiently, 45,000,000 cruzados a year were required. Taking the British subsidy as equalling 16,000,000, and the available national contribution at 9,000,000 cruzados, there was little more than half the required sum available. This Portuguese calculation appears to be borne out by the note of Beresford’s chief of the staff, D’Urban, in February 1812. ‘The Marshal at Lisbon finds that, after a perfect investigation, it appears that the expenditure must be nearly £6,000,000--the means at present £3,500,000! _Nous verrons._’ [148] Napier (iv. p. 212) says that Portugal raised 25,000,000 cruzados this year. I cannot understand this, comparing it with Soriano de Luz, iii. p. 523, which quotes 12,000,000 cruzados as the total receipt of taxes for 1811. Does Napier include loans, and the inconvertible paper issued by the government? [149] See complaints of the Conde de Redondo, the Portuguese finance minister, in Soriano de Luz, iii. p. 520.