Exchequer

“ It is no wonder that he has taken to himself an extraordinary degree of merit. For surely such an invention of finance, I believe, never was heard of,—an exchequer wherein extortion was the assessor, fraud the cashier, confusion the accountant, concealment the reporter, and oblivion the remembrancer: in short, such as I believe no man, but one driven by guilt into frenzy, could ever have dreamed of. ”

“ The truth is that the exchequer is a complicated institution, some parts of which may be quite ancient and the results of parallel development on both sides of the Channel; at least the problem of priority has reached no certain solution. ”

“ The Origin of the Exchequer Historians have rivalled one another in their witness to the extraordinary interest and importance of the twelfth-century Exchequer. “The whole framework of society,” writes the Bishop of Oxford, “may be said to have passed annually under its review.... The regular action of the central power of the kingdom becomes known to us first in the proceedings of the Exchequer.” Gneist insists on “its paramount importance” while “finance is the centre of all government”; and in her brilliant monograph on Henry the Second, Mrs. ”

“ For so great is the authority of his roll that it is permitted to no one to contradict it or to change it; unless, perchance, there be so manifest an error that it is clear to all: nor may it even then be changed unless by the common counsel of all the barons, and in their presence, the exchequer of that day being still in session. But a writing of the roll made in the year gone by, or even one of the current year, after the exchequer has been dissolved, may lawfully be changed by no one except the king, to whom, with regard to these matters, every thing is lawful that pleases him. ”

“ These did not in the reign of Henry II. form a part of the exchequer business. Such expenses as appear on the pipe roll were paid by the sheriffs, or by the bailiffs of “honours”; payments out of the treasury itself would only appear on the receipt and issue rolls, and the “spending departments” probably drew their supplies from the camera curie, and not directly from the exchequer. In the course of the 13th century the exchequer gradually acquired partial control of these national accounts. ”

“ D. Thou said'st, if I remember rightly, that sometimes money is brought to be paid into the exchequer which is judged unfit to be received, if, indeed, being weighed against a pound weight of the exchequer, a deficiency is found of more than six pence. Inasmuch, then, as all money of this kingdom ought to have the stamped image of the king, and all moneyers are bound to work acccording to the same weight, how can it happen that all their work is not of one weight? ”

“ The British board was to have no deposit of government stocks: ours are to have a deposit of five millions, to be converted into money when needed, and to constitute another permanent debt to that amount. 6. The British gave a true title to their exchequer act: we give a false one to ours. They entitled theirs, "An act for regulating the issuing and paying off, of exchequer bills:" we entitle ours, "A bill amendatory of the several acts establishing the Treasury department." ”

“ That usher, alone, without an associate, guards the door of the exchequer building: unless when, from his own home, he takes servants for the burdensome part of his office. Likewise the same man guards the door of the chamber of secrets, which is situated, next to the exchequer building. Thither go the barons when a doubtful question is propounded to them in the exchequer, concerning which they prefer to deliberate by themselves rather than in the hearing of all. ”

“ From all these payments all those who, by mandate of the king, sit at the exchequer are entirely free, so that not only are none of them exacted from their domains, but also none from all their fiefs. If, however, one who sits there has an estate either in farm or in custody, or also as a pledge for money, he shall not be exempt, but rather more subject for these to the common law. In addition to and besides these exemptions, moreover, he shall be free at the exchequer from murder-fines, scutages and Danegeld. ”

“ This novel has not been written as a test; and criticism resembles the Exchequer which almost always taxes us on capital greater than what we really possess.
Alas! that we cannot contest its terrible authority! nor make it understand that our patrimony, though small, is at least our own! If we forced ourselves to give all it has the audacity to demand, we should not only ruin ourselves, but to the last remain unsuccessful in appeasing our creditor. ”

“ And indeed, it is only through evil conduct, wilfully persisted in, that there is any embarrassment, either in the theory or working of currency. No exchequer is ever embarrassed, nor is any financial question difficult of solution, when people keep their practice honest, and their heads cool. ”

“ The finance accounts of the United Kingdom show the gross amounts due to the exchequer from the departments, and likewise the amounts payable out of the gross revenue in priority to the claim of the exchequer. On the expenditure side a similar system prevails. No detailed payments are made direct from the exchequer, but round sums are issued from it to subsidiary accounts, from which the actual drafts for the public services are met. ”

“ The treasurer, like the chancellor a clerk, sat at the head of the right-hand side of the table. He charged the accountants with their fixed debts, and dictated the contents of the great roll of accounts (or pipe roll) which embodied the decisions of the court as to the indebtedness of the sheriffs and other accountants. These persons with certain subordinates constituted the court of accounts, or upper exchequer, whereas the lower exchequer, or exchequer of receipt, consisted almost exclusively of the subordinates of the treasurer and chamberlains. ”

“ It follows from this that the officials of the royal exchequer, who are charged with the collection of the tributes for the king, are obliged in conscience to observe and fulfil all that is stated in the preceding conclusions, and to make restitution of all the tributes, or such part of them as has been or shall be collected contrary to the tenor of the said conclusions. This obligation is all the greater for the governor than for the officials of the royal exchequer ”

“ My lord earl, thou dost seem to have invalidated, by this writ, the prerogative of the exchequer, since thou hast obtained a mandate of the King for those things from which thou, by reason of thy seat at the exchequer, art free; and if one may logically draw an inference by deduction from the major term, whoever does not obtain a writ of the King concerning his essarts, will soon become answerable for their payment, but, with all due reverence, this mode of absolution is pernicious on account of the example it sets. ”

“ By the fourth, it was ordained “that [164] the customs of the realm be kept and received by people of the realm, and not by aliens; and that the issues and profits of the same customs, together with all other issues and profits of the realm arising from any matters whatsoever, shall come entirely to the King’s exchequer, ... to maintain the household of the king, and otherwise to his profit, so that the king may live of his own, without taking prises other than those anciently due and accustomed; and all others shall cease.” ”

“ From November 1708 to August 1710 he again held the post of chancellor of the exchequer, and on his retirement he secured for himself a lucrative place as one of the four principal tellers of the exchequer, which he kept until death. ”

“ The offices of the knight silverer and of the melter are conjoined and belong rather to the upper exchequer, and therefore will be explained there with the other offices. The office of the four tellers is the following: When the money is sent to the exchequer to be counted, one of them diligently mixes the whole together, so that the better pieces may not be by themselves and the worse by themselves, but mixed, in order that they may correspond in weight; this being done, the chamberlain weighs in a scale as much as is necessary to make a pound of the exchequer. ”

“ The necessity of the exchequer to raise a great revenue, created by the wasteful expenditure of the state, on the one hand, and the efforts of fraudulent ingenuity on the other, to evade the payment of the high duties imposed, are the true origin of that regime. Examinations in distilleries are constantly made by the officers of excise. ”

“ The greater number even die soon, without the possibility of assistance from their neighbors, because they also are poor. The royal exchequer is also always in difficulties, and embarrassed by many debts. ”

“ For every copy of this Prescript issued to the *s of Dens, Ten Dollars will be required. Two dollars of which shall go into the hands of the Grand Exchequer of the Grand Giant; two into the hands of the Grand Exchequer of the Grand Titan; two into the hands of the Grand Exchequer of the Grand Dragon, and the remaining four into the hands of the Grand Exchequer of the Grand Wizard.
Sec. 2. A further source of revenue to the Empire shall be ten per cent. of all the revenue of the Realms, and a tax upon Realms, when the Grand Wizard shall deem it necessary and indispensable to levy the same. ”

“ The receipt of conscience-money is constantly acknowledged in advertisements by the Chancellor of the Exchequer of the day, and the sums which in this manner find their way into the Exchequer are by no means inconsiderable. ”

“ He calls it the “custumal” (consuetudinarium) of the Exchequer. And yet on page xxix. we read of Matthew referring to the
‘custumal’ of the Exchequer wherein a certain document of the reign of Richard I. is said to have been entered, which no longer exists in the Red Book or in any other Exchequer MS.
So also we learn, on page lxii., that Swereford compiled a lost work “which was the custumal known to [206] Matthew Paris, and the probable exemplar of the Red Book of the Exchequer.” So Matthew’s ‘custumal’ (consuetudinarium) was not the Red Book itself, but its now lost “exemplar.” ”

“ The king ordered that the exchequer stipulations should be put in force with rigidness and violence. When a business cannot be settled with fair words, we must of necessity make use of foul. When a man will not contribute of his own free will, if another enforces him he meets his desert.
XXII I knew a merchant who had a hundred and fifty camels of burden and forty bondsmen and servants in his train. ”

“ But when armies were raised at the expense, not of nobles, but of kings—when their cost became a lasting and heavy drain on the royal exchequer—sovereigns grew desirous of a more durable and profitable result from their victories. ”

“ Gladstone may prove a more serious embarrassment, for the expenditure of the country is enormous, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, despite of his brilliant talents, does not possess the confidence of the Exchange. ”

“ The same exhalations, to serve another purpose, are converted into winds, which blow where they list, from what point of the compass they will, and we are so far from directing them that we cannot tell whence they come nor whither they go, but God brings them out of his treasuries with as much exactness and design as a prudent prince orders money to issue out of his exchequer. ”

“ By granting to the company the privilege of proposing [the names of] persons whom it considers trustworthy, to serve in the office of alcalde-mayor for the provinces where it will have its manufactures, cultivation of crops, or operation of mines, all possible advancement will be rendered easy, and the royal exchequer will preserve the royal revenues, by means of the said persons, for whom security will be given by the said company or its directors; and even the tributes of various provinces could be arranged, by agreement, with evident advantage and benefit to the royal exchequer. ”

“ The finances were constantly in a condition of hopeless confusion—a circumstance hardly to be wondered at, seeing that a prelate in charge of the Exchequer is said to have refused to study political economy, because some of the text books were upon the Index. ”

“ But if this were the case, surely he need not cut his estimates so fine. A nation that has grown so enormously rich in a few years’ time could well afford to keep a good balance at its banker’s—i. e., in the Exchequer. ”

“ Look at our towns in the country; whenever the exchequer is in need of a little ready money, they put up sufficient land in our district to replenish their coffers, and to make the inhabitants feel the desire and necessity for more. ”

“ It cost the citizens (as some have written) more than twenty thousand marks, which they were amerced in, before William le March, treasurer of the king’s exchequer, to purchase the king’s favour, and confirmation of their liberties. ”

“ This is exactly the case in the present day. (Cheers.) The Chancellor of the Exchequer has made so many holes in the bags in which the people's wages are put, that a man has no means of keeping his money. ”

“ "Aid from heaven you may have," he said, "by saying your prayers; and I don't doubt you ask it for this and all other things generally. But an angel won't come to tell you who ought to be Chancellor of the Exchequer." ”

“ If any person lays any wool, not entered as aforesaid, within fifteen miles of the sea, it must be seized and forfeited, and if, after such seizure, any person shall claim the same, he must give security to the exchequer that if he is cast upon trial he shall pay treble costs, besides all other penalties. ”