We all know Eliwood as a kind noble with a kind heart, but is that the case? Let’s take a look at Dorcas, a mercenary who was hired for 2000 gold. If you take a look at his starting inventory in Eliwood mode, he has one steel axe and one energy ring, which totals to a selling value of 4180 gold. But many players end up using that ring, and wearing out that steel axe. This leaves Dorcas at net loss of 2180 gold for the campaign.
And if you take a look at other mercenaries throughout the series(Beowulf, Hugh, Farina, Rennac, etc.), you will see that the standard going price is around 10000 gold(With Farina being the exception). Now some may point this out as Dorcas’ fault for taking such a bad deal, but think about his situation. During the events of Eliwood’s story, he had recently moved from Bern to Pherae. Many people who immigrate to different countries struggle to find work, and Dorcas may have been driven to Eliwoods offer because it was the only one available.
Even Farina herself remarks that Dorcas is underpaid in her B support with him. Another support chain with bartre has him trying to get Dorcas a raise, with Eliwood calmly dismissing it.
Another argument is Eliwood may be paying his troops at the end of the war. This is where the ranking system comes in. You get more stars in the funds rank for more money at the end of the campaign, which is suspicious enough. But if you take a look at Eliwood in the prologue, he is wearing expensive looking white silk robes. Furthermore, why do the bandits of Mt. Violdrake target Pherae during fe6? Because Eliwood’s war funds from fe7 have left him extremely rich. He has enough money to provide Marcus with a silver lance, and hire 4 mercenaries! Now at best Eliwood payed them each 10000, totaling to 40000 gold. But knowing Eliwood, it’s very possible he underpaid them as well. Even if he paid them the standard price, that would be 40000 gold, that means that he kept the money from fe7 to himself.