UK: What does the Chancellor of the Exchequer do?

[WordMan]

And why is the position called that?

[chukhung]

The Britannica Concise on Yahoo says the Exchequer is the

English government department responsible for receiving and dispersing public revenue. It was established by Henry I in the 12th cent., and its name refers to the checkered cloth on which the reckoning of revenues took place. Originally, the lower Exchequer was an office for the receipt and payment of money, while the upper Exchequer was a court sitting twice a year to regulate accounts. The English judicial system grew out of the upper Exchequer, and the lower Exchequer became the Treasury. “Exchequer” is still the unofficial name of the Treasury in Britain.

Thus “Chancellor of the Exchequer” might roughly correspond to “Secretary of the Treasury” in the U.S.

If you want to go back to original sources, check out this site http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/medieval/excheq.htm which contains “The Dialogue Concerning the Exchequer” written around 1180. I apologize for the extesive quotation, but surely this was written before copyright even existed.

Disciple. What is the exchequer?

Master. The exchequer is a quadrangular surface about ten feet in length, five in breadth, placed before those who sit around it in the manner of a table, and all around it it has an edge about the height of one’s four fingers, lest any thing placed upon it should fall off. There is placed over the top of the exchequer, moreover, a cloth bought at the Easter term, not an ordinary one but a black one marked with stripes, the stripes being distant from each other the space of a foot or the breadth of a hand. In the spaces moreover are counters placed according to their values; about these we shall speak below. Although, moreover, such a surface is called exchequer, nevertheless this name is so changed about that the court itself which sits when the exchequer does is called exchequer; so that if at any time through a decree any thing is established by common counsel, it is said to have been done at the exchequer of this or that year. As, moreover, one says today “at the exchequer,” so one formerly said " at the tallies."

D. What is the reason of this name ?

M. No truer one occurs to me at present than that it has a shape similar to that of a chess board.

D. Would the prudence of the ancients ever have called it so for its shape alone, when it might for a similar reason be called a table (tabularium) ?

M. I was right in calling thee painstaking. There is another, but a more hidden reason. For just as, in a game of chess, there are certain grades of combatants and they proceed or stand still by certain laws or limitations, some presiding and others advancing: so, in this, some preside, some assist by reason of their office, and no one is free to exceed the fixed laws; as will be manifest from what is to follow. Moreover, as in chess the battle is fought between kings, so in this it is chiefly between two that the conflict takes place and the war is waged, the treasurer, namely, and the sheriff who sits there to render account; the others sitting by as judges, to see and to judge.

D. Will the accounts be received then by the treasurer, although there are many there who, by reason of their power, are greater .

M. That the treasurer ought to receive the account from the sheriff is manifest from this, that the same is required from him whenever it pleases the king: nor could that be required of him which he had not received. Some say nevertheless, that the treasurer and the chamberlains should be bounden alone for what is written in the rolls in the treasury, and that for this an account should be demanded of them. But it is believed with more truth that they should be responsible for the whole writing of the roll, as will be readily understood from what is to follow.

[Captain_Amazing]

Primarily, he collects taxes and prepares the budget, with consultation from the other Ministers. He used to have control over monetary policy too, I believe, but now the Bank of England is an independent agency and not part of the Treasury anymore.

The word “Exchequer” comes from the French word originally meaning a chess board. Under the Normans, the tables used to count government money were covered by a checkered cloth, so that the table looked like a chess board. Therefore, the term got associated with the tables, and eventually to the treasury itself.

[clairobscur]

*Originally posted by Captain Amazing *
**. Under the Normans, the tables used to count government money were covered by a checkered cloth, so that the table looked like a chess board. **

I understand that this checkered cloth was used to keep the accounts, by moving “things” along the lines and rows. It was a giant abacus, sort of.

[everton]

Originally posted by Captain Amazing
He used to have control over monetary policy too, I believe, but now the Bank of England is an independent agency and not part of the Treasury anymore.

Slight nitpick: The Bank of England has never been part of the Treasury as such, but you’re right that the present Chancellor, Gordon Brown, did abdicate responsibility for setting interest rates, which are now set directly by a committee of the Bank of England. The Chancellor of the Exchequer is still responsible for other aspects of monetary policy.

[WordMan]

Simply because I do not do this often enough:

Thanks for the quick answers!