The article deals with the financial situation of historians - university lecturers and archivists - in Galicia from the end of the nineteenth century to World War I, recreated predominantly upon the basis of their official and private correspondence, kept in the archival collections of Cracow and Lviv. The author emphasises the fact that the earnings of members of the discussed professional group were small, both in their own eyes and in comparison with the remuneration of civil servants. In the case of university lecturers paid by the state authorities, this situation was caused by the policy pursued by the Austrian authorities which devoted relatively small sums for science and, at the same time, financially favoured schools with German as the language of instruction. On the other hand, the condition of the archivists was the outcome of a policy approved by the authorities of autonomous Galicia. The situation was aggravated by the, as a rule, long wait for promotion in the professional hierarchy. Low wages were, to a certain degree, supplemented by author's fees (extremely variegated), revenues from tuition (enjoyed only by certain categories of academic teachers), savings from research trips financed by the Polish Academy of Letters and Sciences, scholarships and prizes financed by private scientific foundations as well as employment outside the archives and universities. Despite all those circumstances, Polish historiography in Galicia achieved an extremely high level. The author indicates that a similar situation prevailed also in other domains of the sciences during the discussed period and in the same territory.