EXC 
many of them were made out for small 
sums, as low as 101. and 51. each ; and 
though they bore no interest when first 
issued, upon being re-issued after having 
been paid into the Exchequer upon any 
of the taxes, they carried interest at 5 d. a 
day per cent, equal to 71. 12s. id. per 
cent, per annum. These bills being regu- 
larly discharged, other sums were soon 
raised on similar securities, and their credit 
becoming established, they have ever since 
been used for anticipating the produce of 
particular taxes, and have almost constant- 
ly formed the principal 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 
revenue) 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 :\\d. 
a day per cent. They are frequently made 
out for 100 l. each, but those issued of late 
years have been chiefly for 1000k each, 
and they have sometimes been made for 
much larger sums: they are numbered 
arithmetically, and registered accordingly, 
for the purpose of paying them off in regu- 
lar course, the time of which is notified by 
public advertisment. 
The daily transactions between the Bank 
and the Exchequer are chiefly carried on 
by these bills, which are deposited 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 detail part of the money con- 
cerns of government 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 repayment of advances. 
When these bills sell at a considerable 
discount, or any other circumstance in- 
dicates that the quantity of them in circu- 
lation is too great, the usual expedient is 
to fund a part of them, that is, to convert 
them into a permanent debt by offering the 
holders of them stock in lieu of their bills ; 
this was done in October 1796, in Novem- 
ber 1801, and again in March 1808. The 
total amount of Exchequer bills outstand- 
ing on the 5th of January 1807, including 
EXC 
3,000,0001. held by the Bank, pursuant to 
an .agreement for the renewal of their 
charter, was 27,207,1001. 
Exchequer, Mack book of the, a book 
containing a description of the court of 
England in 1175, and its officers, with 
their ranks, wages, privileges, perquisites, 
&c. also the revenues of the crown, both 
in money and cattle. 
EXCISE duties, inland taxes on commo- 
dities of general consumption. This mode 
of taxation having been always found very 
productive, has been adopted by all the 
European governments, and by some of 
them has been extended even to the neces- 
saries of life ; but, in general, the articles 
subjected to it have been such as are not 
absolutely essential to subsistence. Sait 
appears to have been the object of an ex- 
cise duty at a very early period ; in later 
times oil, wine, tobacco, and various oilier 
consumable articles have been burthened 
with duties of this description. 
Excise duties were first established in 
England in 1643, when the long parliament 
laid a tax on beer and ale in all the coun- 
ties within their power; and the king’s par- 
liament, then sitting at Oxford, imposed the 
like taxes on all within their power, by 
which means these new duties called excise 
became general. It is supposed that the 
plan was originally adopted in consequence 
of its success in the neighbouring common- 
wealth of Holland. It was at first laid 
upon liquors only; and it was solemnly de- 
clared that, at the end of the war, all excises 
should be abolished ; but the contest con- 
tinuing longer than was expected, this ob- 
noxious mode of levying money was expend- 
ed to bread, meat, salt, and many other 
articles. The excise on bread and meat 
was afterwards repealed. 
In the yeiir 1660, two duties were im- 
posed on English ale, amounting to 2s. 6d. 
per barrel of strong, and 6d. per barrel of 
small beer; a duty of 2 d. per gallon was 
also imposed on home-made spirits. These 
duties were farmed till the year 1684, when 
they were put under the management of 
commissioners. For a considerable time they 
yielded a revenue that was gradually increas- 
ing, and which amounted, in the year end- 
ing Midsummer 1688, to 786,915k 12s. 74. 
Soon after the revolution several temporary 
duties were imposed on beer and ale ; and 
in 1694, the established duties were 4s. 9d. 
per barrel on strong, and Is. 3d. per barrel 
on small beer: the augmentation of the 
