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exchequer

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exchequer

Name of the king's court of revenue which is taken from the fact that in early times the accounts were reckoned up on a chequered cloth, resembling a large chessboard, round which the officers sat. It appears that the sums of money received by the treasurer were scored on the squares of this cloth with counters, the process being suggestive of a game of chess.

The English and French words are allied to the Latin root scac, which appears in scaccum, a chessboard and scaccarium, the Court of Exchequer and also the chequered cloth used there. The name only began to be used about the time of Henry I, and before the use of the chequered cloth as an aid to calculation business was transacted by means of ‘tallies’, or notched sticks.

See also chancellor of the Exchequer.



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Poverty of the State exchequer causes an army to be maintained by contributions from a distance.
The Art of War by Sun, Tzu View in context
These works, which I owe to the high talents and disinterested zeal of the above distinguished authors, could not have been undertaken, had it not been for the liberality of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, who, through the representation of the Right Honourable the Chancellor of the Exchequer, have been pleased to grant a sum of one thousand pounds towards defraying part of the expenses of publication.
The Voyage of the Beagle by Darwin, Charles View in context
Fisher said, rather vaguely, that he was following soon, when he had fixed something up; and the Chancellor of the Exchequer left the inn.
The Man Who Knew Too Much by Chesterton, Gilbert K. View in context
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