His finances were not a pretty sight.
Provincial governors were kept under strict supervision; extortion was practically unheard of; the jus Latii was bestowed upon several communities; special officials were instituted for the control of the finances; and the emperor's interest in provincial affairs was shown by his personal assumption of various municipal offices.
Their finances were indeed excellent; they kept regular accounts, and had already developed the modern principle of separating the civil list from the expenses of the government; but when they brought the tables of moneychangers into the temple, they were doing as the Templars had done before them, and were likely to suffer as the Templars had suffered.
His grandfather was a man of ability, an enterprising merchant of London, one of the commissioners of customs under the Tory ministry during the last four years of Queen Anne, and, in the judgment of Lord Bolingbroke, as deeply versed in the " commerce and finances of England " as any man of his time.
Marcian repudiated the payment of tribute to Attila; he reformed the finances, checked extravagance, and repeopled the devastated districts.