ABSTRACT
One of the key objectives of the fiscal reform program was to make more funds available for military purposes. Under the existing system specific sources of revenue were pre-assigned to particular categories of expenditure so that there was little in-built flexibility. The alleged ambiguity in Linhares’s original instructions, and later the apparent weakening of metropolitan support for reform, may have stemmed from underlying tensions between the Olivares regime in Madrid and the authorities in Lisbon. If consolidating crown revenue was one part of Linhares’s broader fiscal program then securing a regular defence subsidy for the viceregal treasury from local taxation was another. In 1623 the Goa camara had reluctantly agreed to impose an extraordinary tax on food imports, known as the collecta. In addition to consolidating revenue and renewing the collecta Linhares also took up the challenge of cutting expenditure.
