Akademik

The department which dealt with all aspects of the revenues of the crown; the department responsible for collecting and making secure all royal monies. Receipts were dealt with in the lower exchequer, handling expenditure and collection of royal revenue. The exchequer of account, the upper exchequer, audited all returns made by government agents. The department took its name from the chequered cloth spread on the table around which the officers sat: ad scaccarium, anglicised as 'exchequer'. Calculations were made by adding and subtracting counters set on the chequered cloth. Officers of the exchequer, known as 'barons', met twice each year with the sheriffs and other royal-revenue collectors to record revenue and expenditure; these were enrolled on the *Pipe Rolls, kept at the treasury, along with *DB and other royal records. -

Cf. Dialogus de Scaccario