Talk:Exchequer

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Contents 1 Exchequer etymological history 2 Scotland 3 Chess piece 4 Pitt???? 5 Cleanup

[edit] Exchequer etymological history

I added the paragraph on checks, ex-chequer, shah-mat, etc. Sources on the etymology are the OED and some financial history books which I do not have on me. Used them in a class I taught some years ago. I failed to log in while I made the edit. Sorry about that. The history makes clear that a chess piece or more exactly a chess board would be an appropriate illustration. The best thing would be a painting from the era but I am unaware of any. Basically the London jewelers of the 15th and 16th centuries did double service as lenders and bankers, somewhere there may be a painting of one with a chess board.

GN842 (Greg Nowell)

I removed the paragraph. The reason for this is that I have already given the known etymology of the word "exchequer" when applied to the court (rather than to anything else), which originates in the Dialogue. The remainder of your paragraph would usefully go under cheque or some other financial article. The point is that the exchequer is a very old government department and much of what you discuss comes later and is not relevant to *this* article, though it may be very interesting elsewhere. If you have anything more to add about the etymology of the word "exchequer" for which you have a reference, I would be interested to see it.

I also removed the paragraph because it talked about anachronistic things like paper being used in accounting. That may have been true later (I am sure it was) but it wasn't then. We do know quite a bit about the practice of the exchequer from the Dialogue (and a few other places) and paper wasn't used. To mention it in the context of this article is going to confuse any reader.

I think we have, at least reconstructed versions, of the exchequer board and those might be suitable but remember this is not an article about finance and banking in general but about two specific government departments (courts as they would have the been called) one in England and one in Scotland. Francis Davey 08:40, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

A particular point that worried me was the quote 'The chess board itself served a double service: the pieces could be cleared from the board and the rows and columns, marked with scraps of paper, could be used as an "analog spreadsheet" which were used to check accounts'. We know that the exchequer table was not square and was not 8x8 squares, so it was not a chessboard and could not have been used as one (even if anyone had the inclination to do so). I doubt that chess was so popular in 12th century England that this is even likely, but that would be a matter of further investigation. Francis Davey 08:47, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Scotland

I had tried to write an article about the English Exchequer (which became the Exchequer of which the Chancellor of the Exchequer is chancellor). I did this because I wanted to write abou the Exchequer of Pleas. This seemed to displease those who wanted to make clear that there was a Scottish Exchequer. Unfortunately their edits have been misleading and anachronistic. I've tried to put some Scottish material in, but its not my field/area, so perhaps someone else could help. Francis Davey 09:17, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Chess piece

Why is there a picture of a random chess piece on this page? --Clay Collier 10:20, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

Because the exchequer board looked like a chess board? I agree, its inappropriate. Francis Davey 13:38, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

I've removed the picture - it was really quite distracting and irrelevant.

[edit] Pitt????

The Exchequer became unnecessary as a revenue collecting department as a result of Pitt's reforms.

Pitt who?

There is no prior reference to him in the article.Martha Lois 20:43, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cleanup

I did some grammatical restructuring in the first section (see these edits). Although I'm pretty sure I didn't change the meaning of anything, I'd like someone more familiar with the term Exchequer to review. I'm still kinda confused as to the proper use of the term and want to make sure the edits are proper. Thanks! /Blaxthos ( t / c ) 08:46, 25 November 2007 (UTC)