The Romance of Words.

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 92, 12 January 1935, Page 13

The Romance of Words.

EXCHEQUER The word “exchequer" comes from the fatin seaccum, meaning a cnessboard. But what have the national finances to do with chess? In the reign of Edward I (13th century) the English Court was divided up into departments, so that various classes of business could be carried out by those in charge more efficiently than when the whole court had to deal with everything. This process of specialisation has gone on until to-day it takes the form of a Government with various departments and a Minister in charge of each. In those early days, the officials who looked after the King’s income carried out their business in a room where there was a special table covered with a cloth marked out in squares, like a chessboard. This was to facilitate the counting and apportioning ;of the revenue. In each square the person corresponding to the present-day Chancellor of the Exchequer, or Finance Minister, placed an equal pile of coins. We have moved a very long way from this primitive method. Yet, in spite of our complicated accountancy, the name of that useful tablecloth (scaeearium) has persisted to this day in the form of “exchequer."