Exchequer

[2] The term is used in various financial documents, including the latest departmental and agency annual accounts.

[3][4][5][6] Historically, it was the name of a British government department[7] responsible for the collection and the management of taxes and revenues, making payments on behalf of the sovereign, and auditing official accounts.

[9] The Exchequer was named after a table used to perform calculations for taxes and goods in the medieval period.

[10] According to the Dialogus de Scaccario ('Dialogue concerning the Exchequer'),[11] an early medieval work describing the practice of the Exchequer, the table was large, 10 feet by 5 feet with a raised edge or "lip" on all sides of about the height of four fingers to ensure that nothing fell off it, upon which counters were placed representing various values.

The name Exchequer referred to the resemblance of the table to a chess board (French: échiquier) as it was covered by a black cloth bearing green stripes of about the breadth of a human hand in a chequer-pattern.

It is unknown exactly when the Exchequer was established, but the earliest mention appears in a royal writ of 1110 during the reign of King Henry I.

[15]: p.219 Under Henry I, a procedure adopted for the audit involved the treasurer drawing up a summons to be sent to each sheriff, who was required to answer with an account of the income in his shire both from royal demesne lands and from the county farm (a form of local taxation).

Following the proclamation of Magna Carta, legislation was enacted whereby the Exchequer would maintain the realm's prototypes for the yard and pound.

In 1694, the credit of William III's government was so bad in London that it could not borrow, which led to the foundation of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England.

[citation needed] The Scottish Exchequer dates to around 1200, with a similar role in auditing and royal revenues as in England.

This was done in Section 19 of the Act of Union 1707[28] From 1832, no new barons were appointed; their role was increasingly assumed by judges of the Court of Session.