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Exchange signifies also a place in most 
considerable trading cities, wherein the mer- 
chants, negotiants, agents, bankers, brokers, 
interpreters, and other persons concerned in 
commerce, meet on certain days, and at cer- 
tain times, to confer and treat together of 
matters relating to exchanges, remittances, 
payments, adventures, assurances, freight- 
ments, and other mercantile negotiations, 
both by sea and land. These assemblies are 
held with so much exactness, that the absence 
ol a merchant, & c. makes him suspected of 
drawing to a failure or bankruptcy, as not 
being able to stand the Change.' The most 
considerable exchanges in Europe, are those 
of Amsterdam, and that of London, called 
•the Royal Exchange. 
Exchange of church livings, is 
where two persons having procured licence 
from the ordinary to treat of and exchange, 
do, by one instrument in writing, agree to 
exchange their benefices, being both spiritual, 
and in order thereunto resign them into the 
hands of the ordinary; such exchange being 
executed, the resignations are good." Wats, 
c. 4. These exchanges are now seldom 
used. 
EXCHEQUER. This, which is a court 
■of law and equity, is a very ancient court of 
record, established by William the Conqueror, 
as a part ef the aula regis, though regulated 
and reduced to its present state by Ed. I. 
and intended principally to order the revenues 
of the crown, and to recover the king’s debts 
and duties. 
The court consists of two divisions, viz. 
the receipt of the exchequer, which manages 
the royal revenue ; and the judicial, which is 
again subdivided into a court of 'equity, and 
a court of common law. 
The court of equity is held in the ex- 
chequer, before the lord treasurer, the chan- 
cellor of the exchequer, the chief baron, and 
three puisne barons. The primary and ori- 
ginal business of 1 h i 3 court was to call the 
king’s debtors to account, by bill filed by 
the attorney general, and to recover any 
-lands, tenements, or hereditaments, goods", 
chattels, or other profits or benefits, belong- 
ing to the crown. 
This court, which was established merely 
for the benefit of the king’s accountant, is 
thrown open; and now, by suggestion of 
privilege, any person may be admitted to sue 
here, as well as the king’s accountant. 
A 11 . appeal from the equity side of this 
court, lies immediately to the house of peers ; 
but from the common law side, pursuant to 
31 Ed. 111. c. 12. a writ of error must first 
be brought into the court of exchequer 
chamber, whence, in the dernier ressort, 
■there lies an appeal to the house of lords. 
Chancellor vf the Exchequer. See 
Chancellor. 
EXCHEQUER CHAMBER lias no ori- 
ginal jurisdiction, but is merely a court of 
appeal, to correct the errors of other juris- 
dictions ; and consists of the lord chancellor, 
the lord treasurer, with the justices of the 
king’s-bench and common-pleas. In imitation 
of this, a second court of exchequer chamber 
was erected by 27 Eliz. c. 8. consisting of 
the justices of the common-pleas, and the 
■barons of the exchequer ; before whom writs 
of error may be brought, to reverse judgments 
in certain suits commenced originally in the 
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court of king’s-bench. Into the exchequer 
chamber, are sometimes •adjourned from the 
other courts, such causes, as the judges upon 
argument find to be of great weight and 
difficulty, before any judgment is given upon 
them in the court. 
EXCHEQUER BILLS. Bills of credit, 
issued by the authority of parliament, payable 
with interest out of the produce of a particular 
tax, or more frequently out of the supplies to 
be granted in a future session. The sum of 
£ 2,750,000 is usually raised in this manner 
on credit of the malt tax, and tax on personal 
estates, although it is well known that the^e 
taxes never produce so much, the deficiency 
being always made good out of the next 
supplies. Th§ sum to be issued out of the 
produce of the consolidated fund is likewise 
usually raised by these bills, charged upon 
the growing produce of the surplus of the said 
fund; also other sums for ordinary and ex- 
traordinary expenses, by bills charged upon 
the first supplies of the next session ; so that 
of late years the total amount of outstanding 
exchequer bill's has usually been about ten 
millions. The bank, since 1706, have con- 
tracted with government for the circulation 
of these bills at a certain premium. The 
interest they carry has been at various rates, 
from £ 7 : 12' to 3 per cent. ; those at present 
in circulation bear interest at the rate of 
threepence halfpenny a day per cent, which 
is computed up to the day of sale, from the 
respective dates of the bills. They are 
generally for £ 100 each, but many of those 
issued on the vote of credit are for £ j 000, 
and they have sometimes been made out for 
much larger sums-, they are numbered arith- 
metically, and registered accordingly, for the 
purpose of paying them off in a regular 
course. They are paid at the exchequer bill 
office, and the time of payment is notified by 
advertisement. 
The daily transactions between the bank 
and the exchequer are chieliy carried on by 
bills of £ 1000 each, which are deposited by 
the bank in the exchequer to the amount of 
the sums received by them on government 
account; the bank notes and cash thus re- 
ceived by the bank being retained by them, 
as the detail part of the money-concerns of 
government is all transacted at the bank. 
The instalments on loans are paid into the 
receipt of the exchequer by these exchequer 
bills of £ 1000 each, which are received again 
by the bank as cash, either for the amount of 
dividends due, or in re-payments of advances ; 
and as, while deposited in the exchequer, 
they are considered merely as a pledge or 
security, they of course continue to bear in- 
terest, "till the advance on which the bank 
first received them is paid oh'. 
In October, 1796, the 5 percent, exchequer 
bills, issued on the vote of credit, being at 
a considerable discount, it was thought pro- 
per to fund them ; and the terms agreed upon 
were as follows: — The holders to be entitled 
for every £100 to either of the following 
capitals : 
£ s d 
176 19 9? in the 3 per cents. 
137 18 1\ in the 4 per cents. 
118 6 Iff! in the 5 per cents. 
The amount of the bills thus funded was 
<£.1,433,870, and the capital stock created 
in the different funds, £ 2,374,33-3 14 8. 
10 
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In November, 1801, it was again found 
necessary to fund a considerable part of the 
outstanding exchequer bills, which was effect- 
ed on the following conditions: for each 
£ 100 principal to receive the under-men- 
tioned proportions of stock : 
Estimated value 
£ 
c£ 
,s 
d 
25 Three pier cent, consols 
17 
1 
ink 
25 '1 hree per cent, reduced 
16 
16 
ioi 
50 Four percent, consols 
42 
7 
6 
25 New 5 per cents. 
24 
15 
0 
Is. 0d. Long annuity 
1 
14 
4 
£ 102 
15 
7 
And the proprietors to have the liberty ol 
subscribing £ 50 additional in money for 
every J. loo they held in bills, the money 
thus raised to be applied in paving off the 
sum of about £2,400,000 iff exchequer 
bills in the possession of the bank. The 
amount of the bills funded and redeemed was 
£8,910,450. 
As there is always a considerable sum out- 
standing in exchequer bills, the interest paid 
thereon forms a constant addition to the an-' 
nual charge of the funded debt ; the amount 
paid for interest on exchequer bills in the 
years 1803, 1804, and 1805, respectively, 
was as follows : 
£ s d 
1803 . . 801,787 10 5-§ 
1804 . . 624,859 18 10 
1805 . . 1,478,316 3 3i 
The premium or discount at which ex- 
chequer bills sell, depends on the proportion 
winch the interest payable on them bears to 
the interest produced by the public funds ac- 
cording to their current prices. 
[Exchequer bills, though the same in their 
nature and solidity, differ in their origin from 
navy bills in this, that they are issued in anti- 
cipation of revenue, and circulated by the 
bank of England to raise money. During 
the recess of parliament, there is a sum left 
to the credit of the chancellor of the exche- 
quer, to serve in cases of exigency. The 
bank makes advances to the amount voted, 
for which the exchequer issues bills. There 
is a standing contract between government 
and the bank for the trouble and e^pence 
attending the issue and circulation of these 
bills. Notice is given by public advertise- 
ment, and the payment is made at the ex- 
chequer-bill office Westminster. 
Exchequer, black book of -the, a book 
containing a description of the court of Eng- 
land in 1175, and its officers, with their ranks, 
wages, privileges, perquisites, &c. also the 
revenues ot the crown, both in money and 
cattle. Here we find that for one shilling 
as much bread might be bought as would 
serve 100 men a whole day ; that the price 
of a fat bullock was only 12 shillings, and a 
sheep less than four. 
EXCISE, one of the principal branches 
of the public revenue, consisting of inland 
duties, or taxes on articles manufactured or 
consumed, whereas_the duties of customs 
are paid on goods brought into or carried 
out ot the country. Excise duties are of 
very ancient date; they were numerous among 
it D 
