The Genoese exchequer was unable to repay to Vignoso and his partners their expenses, amounting to 203,000 Genoese pounds (£79,170 of our money) or 7000 for each of the twenty-nine galleys, the Genoese pound being then, according to Desimoni, worth 9 lire 75 centesimi. Accordingly, by an arrangement made on February 26, 1347, it was agreed that the Republic should liquidate this liability within twenty years and thereupon become the direct owner of the conquered places, which in the meanwhile were to be governed—and the civil and criminal administration conducted—in her name. The collection of taxes, however, and the monopoly of the mastic, which was the chief product of the island, were granted to the twenty-nine associates in the company, or _mahona_, as it was called. The origin of this word is uncertain. In modern Italian _maona_ means a “lighter”; but those vessels of Turkish invention are not mentioned before 1500. On the other hand, we read of a _maona_, or _madona_ (as it is there written), in connexion with a Genoese expedition to Ceuta in a document of 1236, and it has, therefore, been suggested that _maona_ is a Ligurian contraction of _Madonna_, and that such trading companies were under the protection of Our Lady, whose image was to be seen on the palace of the Giustiniani at Genoa. At any rate, the name was applied to other Genoese companies, to the Old and New _maona_ of Cyprus, founded in 1374 and 1403, and to the _maona_ of Corsica, founded in 1378. Other derivations are from the Greek word μονάς (“unit”), the Genoese _mobba_ (“union”), and the Arabic _me-unet_ (“subsidy”)[488].