Read it through once

There were many sides to this career, and in some of them the Prince never received the credit which he deserved. One was the essentially business-like management of his financial affairs. From the time of attaining his majority the Heir Apparent received £40,000 a year by grant of Parliament; at his marriage a special grant of £10,000 was given the Princess of Wales; when their children grew up the Prince was given £36,000 to apportion amongst them as he saw fit. During his minority the wise management of the revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall--which is an hereditary appurtenance of the Prince of Wales--by the late Prince Consort, gave the Heir Apparent a total of £600,000, of which £220,000 were expended upon the purchase of Sandringham, and a considerable sum upon improvements there. On the Prince's marriage he was voted £23,455 to defray expenses and his allowance for the Indian tour of 1875 was £142,000 of which £69,000 was for presents. Marlborough House was given him by the nation, though he paid taxes upon it like any other citizen. The Duchy of Cornwall was so well managed after it came under his control that it yielded in 1897 a total income of nearly £74,000, or almost double the value of the returns received forty years before. Birk Hall, an estate inherited from the Prince Consort, was sold to the Queen for £120,000. The total public income of the Prince of Wales during many years was about £180,000, or nearly a million dollars, and the management of his finances was always careful. The stories of extravagance and indebtedness were absolutely without foundation. Yet these tales of poverty were always widespread and were probably believed by many millions of people.