EXCHEQUER, Chancellor of, is, in Great Britain, the officer to whom the arrange ment of the financial concerns of the country is chiefly entrusted. He causes accounts to be annually laid before par liament of the produce of the taxes, with estimates of the several branches of pub lic expenditure for the ensuing year ; and if the amount of the estimated ex penditure exceeds the probable produce of the revenue, he adjusts the extent and conditions of the loan with such persons as are willing to advance the same, and proposes to parliament the new taxes which become necessary for paying the interest on the money thus borrowed, On the foundation of the accounts and estimates submitted to parliament, parti cular sums are voted for the several branches of the expenditure, and where the ways and means of raising the whole sum wanted have been determined, an act is passed, appropriating the specific sums to the various articles forming the supplies which have been granted. In order to provide against any unforeseen expences, it is usual to grant also a cer tain sum, unappropriated to any particular purpose, to be applied to any branch of the expenditure in which there may be occasion for it; this is called a vote of credit, and has increased in amount with the progress of the supplies ; in the American war it was 1,000,0001. per an num, of late it has generally been 2,500,000/. Soon after the commence ment of each session, an account is laid before the House of Commons, sheaving how the money given for the service of the preceding year has been disposed of, and what part thereof remains unpaid. If the ways and means have fallen short of the sum they were expected to pro duce, the deficiency is made good as an article among the next year's supplies.
Excur.nuxa bills, bills or tickets issued by the Exchequer, payable out of the produce of a particular tax, or generally out of the supplies granted for the year, and receivable in all payments to the ex chequer. The first bills of this kind were issued in 1697, as a more conveni ent kind of security than the tallies and orders for repayment then in use, and were partly intended to supply the want of money during the recoinage then un dertaken. With this view, many of them were made out of small sums, as low as 1W. and 51. each ; and though they bore no in terest when first issued, upon beingre-is sued, after having been paid into the Ex chequer upon any of the taxes, they car ried interest at 5d. a day per cent. equal to
71. 12s. ld. per cent. per annum. These bills being regularly discharged, other sums soon raised on similar securities, and their credit becoming established, they have ever since been used for antici pating the produce of particular taxes, and have almost constantly formed the prin cipal article of that part of the public debt called the unfunded debt. Of late years, the total amount of outstanding Exchequer bills (exclusive of those charged on specific branches of the re venue) has usually been about twelve millions. The interest- payable on them has been at various rates, according to the current rate of interest at the time they were issued ; those at present (1808) in circulation bear interest at the rate of aid. a day per cent. They are frequently made out for 100/. each, but those issued of late years have been chiefly for 1000/. each, and they have sometimes been made for much larger sums ; they arc numbered arithmetically, and registered accordingly, for the pur pose of payingthem off in regular course, the time of which is notified by public advertisement.
The daily transactions between the Bank and the Exchequer are chiefly car ried on by these bills, which are deposit ed by the Bank in the Exchequer, to the amount of the sums received by them on account of government ; the bank notes and cash thus received by the Bank being retained by them, as the de tail part of the money concerns of go vernment is all transacted at the Bank. The instalments on loans are paid into the receipt' of the Exchequer in Ex chequer bills, which are received again by the Bank as cash, either for the amount of dividends due, or in repay ment of advances.
When these bills sell at a considerable discount, or any other circumstance in dicates that the quantity of them in cir culation is too great, the usual expedient is to fund a part of them ; that is, to con vert them into a permanent debt, by of fering the holders of them stock in lieu of their bills ; this was done in October 1796, in November 1801, and again in March 1808. The total amount of Ex chequer bills outstanding on the 5th of January 1807, including 3,000,000/. held by the Bank, pursuant to an agreement for the renewal of their charter, was 27,207,100/.