Our ideas of the financial operations of the Post Office from 1635 to 1711 are somewhat clearer than during the preceding period. We know that Witherings' aim was to make the system self-supporting. It had probably not entered into his head that it might ever be anything more. After the sequestration of the position of Postmaster-General to Burlamachi, he was called upon to render an account of the financial proceedings of the Post Office during the short period that he was in charge.[706] He reported that from August 4, 1640, to December 25, 1641, the receipts had been £8363 and the expenditure £4867. £1400 of the balance had been paid to the Secretary of State and "of the remaining £2000, those that keep the office are to be considered for their pains and attendance." This is rather vague but the report shows that the Post Office was self-supporting only six years after Witherings' reforms had been adopted.[707] Prideaux reported at an early period in his régime that, with the exception of the Dover road and the Holyhead packet, the posts paid for themselves.[708] After the Post Office was farmed, there can be no doubt as to the total net revenue, but it is impossible to say how much the farmer made over and above the amount of his farm or how large his expenses were. Manley paid the state £10,000 a year and is said to have made £14,000 during the six years that he farmed the Posts.[709] In 1659 the rent was raised to £14,000[710] a year, and in 1660 there was a further advance to £21,500.[711] Of this £21,500 the Duke of York received £16,117 and the rest was spent largely in paying pensions and for a few minor expenses such as the payment of the Court Postmaster.[712] By the act of 1663, the net Post Office revenue was settled upon the Duke of York and his male heirs, with the exception of about £5000 a year, that being the amount of the pension charges on the revenue.[713] Certain deductions were made from the sum total of rent due, on account of the loss to the farmer from the activity of the interlopers, and the deficit was ordered to be made up from some other branch of the royal revenue.[714] [706] _Cal. T. P._, 1697-1702, p. 289. [707] _Cal. S. P. D._, 1641-43, p. 213. [708] _Jo. H. C._, 1648-51, p. 385. [709] _Cal. S. P. D._, 1653-54, p. 365. [710] Hist. MSS. Com., _Rep._, 15, app., pt. 1, p. 97. [711] _Rep. Com._, 1844, xiv, app., p. 76 (53). [712] _Cal. S. P. D._, 1661-62, pp. 122, 245. [713] 15 Chas. II, c. 14. [714] _Cal. S. P. D._, 1663-64, p. 598.