Exchequer (Themiclesia)

The Exchequer (內, nubh) is a Themiclesian government agency overseeing the collection and payment of goods and money. It dates to the Hexarchy and has been a fixture in the bureaucracy since, though its jurisdiction and duties have varied from time to time.

Name

The Shinasthana name nubh (內) means "to receive, take in".

The Tyrannian name comes from a comparison of the department's duties to the Tyrannian Exchequer, which was abolished in 1826. There are, however, important differences between the Tyrannian and Themiclesian exchequers.

Duties

The Themiclesian Exchequer was divided into two principal departments, the Great Exchequer (大內, ladh-nubh) and the Small Exchequer (少內, smjaw′-nubh). Each was headed by a director, responsible to the Inner Administrator (內史). The Great Exchequer oversaw the collection and distribution of goods, and the Small Exchequer managed the same for money.

It should be noted that the Exchequer was distinct from the treasuries, where money and goods were stored.  Before the modern period, there were multiple treasuries that stored money and goods for different purposes in different places. The Exchequer was responsible only for acceptance and payment, not safekeeping. This was a measuare imposed to prevent fraud and embezzlement by separating receipts from storage. If revenues were to be received, the figures expected would be sent to the Exchequer, which would then ensure they arrived in correct amounts and send them away for storage. If payment was to be made, the Exchequer checked the credentials of the recipient and requested the Inner Administrator to release funds from an appropriate source. The Exchequer did not physically possess the revenues for more than ten days, and the treasuries could not spend independently. Yet since the Exchequer encompassed a large part of the central government's account, it remained an important financial department where most revenue planning was done.

The Great Exchequer has declined in importance since the 16th century compared to the Small Exchequer, when most revenues arrived in the form of money instead of goods, such as grains. However, the Great Exchequer was never abolished, as prefectures and peers were still bound to remit regional products to the royal court as a statement of their political allegiance.

While the Exchequer oversaw most of the revenue collections, its authority was limited to the Demesne Land and the fiefs within it. The palatine states formerly possessed their own exchequers, but these were centralized in the 6th century. Early Themiclesian dynasties did not forbid private minting of money, which allowed owners of copper and gold mines to become immensely wealthy; however, the pieces must be stamped by the Privy Treasury to become legal tender, when their purity was examined and a small portion thereof collected as a fine. This money and that minted by the Privy Treasury were paid into the Exchequer. Additionally, the Marine Prefect, which administered southern Columbia as a giant royal forest, was effectively his own exchequer, though payments from his department to the central government were still paid into the Exchequer.

Other exchequers

Other government agencies sometimes have departments called exchequers, which frequently have a similar function. In most instances, the same division of duties between exchequer and treasury is also present.  The head of these excheuquers could sometimes become the chief assistant to the formal head fo the department, even in departments that did not manage finance. For example, the title Master of the Exchequer (內長史) is given to the senior-most colonel in the Themiclesian Marine Corps and usually indicated the next-in-line to be Captain-general; the office formerly functioned as a paymaster (hence its senior standing) but was deprecated in the 1870s.

See also

• Inner Administrator
• Privy Treasury