France, insisted on restricting the Knights' claims to unlimited
seizure of infidel vessels and infidel property on board ship. As
early as 1582 the Pope had forbidden the Order to seize in a Christian
harbour Turkish ships or Turkish property on Christian ships,
and, despite the strenuous opposition of the Knights, enforced his
commands.

The expenditure of the Order was, on the whole, within the limits of
its revenue. The chief charge upon the expenditure was the fighting
forces--the fleet and the garrisons--which together absorbed about
half the revenue. Of the other items, the most important were the
Hospital, the Churches of the Order, and the support of its officers
both at the Convent and in the various European countries. The Knights
were never seriously threatened financially till the French Revolution
wiped out half their revenues at one fell swoop. Emergencies were
always successfully met by an appeal to the self-denial of the members
of the Order and the generosity of Europe.

The control of the revenues was in the hands of the Chambre de Commun
Trésor, which consisted of eight officials, the most important of whom
were the President, who was always the Grand Commander (the conventual
bailiff of Provence, the senior langue of the Order), and the
Secretary through whose hands all the revenues passed. In each langue
certain specified towns were used as receiving Treasuries, under
the control of receivers who paid the money direct to the Central
Treasury; these towns numbered twenty-nine in all. These receivers
obtained the revenues from each estate or commandery within their
district. At first the Order had possessed one common chest, but with
the growth of its possessions each Grand Prior was put in control
of his Priory's revenues; this proving unsatisfactory, from the