In his assumption of this involved and doubtful property, Charles laid heavy responsibilities on his shoulders.  The actual price of fifty thousand gold florins paid to Sigismund was a mere fraction of the pecuniary obligations incurred, while the weight of care was difficult to gauge.  He succeeded to princes weak, frivolous, prodigal, whose misrule had long been a curse to the land.  The incursions of the Swiss, the repeated descents of the Rhine nobles from their crag-lodged strongholds to pillage and destroy, terrified merchants and plunged peaceful labourers into misery.

Through hatred of the absentee Austrians, the neighbouring cities repeatedly became the accomplices of these brigands, affording them asylums for refitting and free passage when they were laden with evident booty.

In all departments of finance and administration disorder prevailed.  The chief officials, castellans and councillors, enjoyed high salaries for neglected duties.  The castles were in wretched repair and there were insufficient troops to guard the roads.  There was no dependence upon the receipts nominally to be expected.  In the sub-mortgaged lands, the lords simply levied what they could, without the slightest responsibility for the order of the domain; they did not hesitate to charge their suzerain for repairs never made, confident that no one would verify their declaration.

In the territories of the immediate domain, the Austrian dukes and their officials had no notion of the rigid system maintained in Burgundy.  Only here and there can little memoranda be found and these are confused and obscure.  There is a dearth of accurate records like those voluminous registers of outlays kept by Burgundian receivers, registers so rich in detail that they are more valuable for the historian than any chronicle.

Exact appraisal of the resources of these pays de par de la was very difficult.  Between 1469 and 1473 there were three efforts to obtain reliable information by means of as many successive commissions despatched to the Rhine valley by the Duke of Burgundy.

Envoys drew up minutes of their observations in addition to their official reports and all were preserved in the archives.  As these were written from testimony gathered on the spot, such as the accounts of the receivers now lost, etc., there is real value in the documents.

The first commission in behalf of Burgundy was composed of two Germans and three Walloons.  One of the former was Peter von Hagenbach, who won no enviable reputation in the later exercise of his office as lieutenant-governor of the annexed region, to which he was shortly afterwards appointed.  This first commission entered into formal possession in Charles’s name and instituted some desired reforms immediately, such as policing the highways, etc.

The second commission made its visit in 1471.  It consisted of Jean Pellet, treasurer of Vesoul, and Jean Poinsot, procureur-general of Amont.