ABSTRACT
Throughout Carlos II's reign, the kingdom was obliged to remit 10 000 ducats a month to pay the contractors supplying the army of Lombardy's pan de munitions. The Milanese alone could not bear the cost of the army of Lombardy, particularly in wartime when costs soared. As with the army of Lombardy, many of the services associated with the Mediterranean galley fleets – including the Tursis galley squadron – were effectively provided by private contractors. In the late 1680s, units of the army of Lombardy were lent to the republic of Venice for the war against the Turks. Spanish ministers were concerned about the implications for the links between Milan and Finale and the wider monarchy. Spanish structures were certainly tested and sometimes found wanting, but that was true of all the states involved in major warfare. Most Spanish policy-makers and officials saw Spanish policy as pacific, concerned merely with the conservation of reputation and territory.
