Gutenberg was then, as for all his life, in financial difficulty. Whatever the outcome of the 1439 suit, he borrowed a hundred pounds in 1441 and in 1442 sold an annual income of four pounds for eighty pounds cash. The Strasburg tax books show that he was in arrears for taxes between 1436 and 1440. By some writers these financial difficulties are supposed to have arisen out of Gutenberg’s devotion to his experiments in typography. It is more probable, however, that they were owing to lack of business ability and possibly to lack of business integrity. The shifts to which he had recourse in his financial difficulties run at times perilously near the line of dishonesty. In 1448 Gutenberg was back in Mainz and again borrowing money. What happened next can best be read back from what is known as the Helmasperger document, a notarial instrument relating to a law suit which John Fust brought against Gutenberg in 1455. From this document it appears that about 1450, or slightly before, Gutenberg became acquainted with John Fust, who was a prosperous business man in Mainz. The two entered into a contract of partnership for five years. Fust was to advance 800 guilders to Gutenberg at six per cent interest for use in procuring tools and materials, said tools to remain mortgaged to Fust until the loan was paid. In addition Fust was to advance to Gutenberg 300 guilders every year to provide for servant’s wages, house rent, vellum, paper, ink, etc. In return Fust was to receive one half of the profits, but was to be responsible for no debts and was to take no personal part in the business. It is reasonably clear from this contract that while Gutenberg had hopes in 1450, and we shall probably see later upon what they were founded, he had not even made the necessary tools for printing, much less printed anything. Things did not, however, go smoothly under the new partnership. Instead of Fust paying the eight hundred guilders at once, he spread the payments over two years. Gutenberg, on his part, did not find the three hundred guilders a year sufficient. Fust, therefore, proposed that instead of paying the three hundred guilders a year for the remaining three years of the partnership, he should pay eight hundred guilders down, and remit the interest on the first eight hundred guilders as an offset for the one hundred guilders which Gutenberg would lose under this modification of the original contract.