Chancellor of the Exchequer when James Callaghan was the first chancellor to break with tradition when he used a newer box. Prior to Gladstone, a generic red Despatch Box of varying design and specification was used. The practice is said to have begun in the late 16th century, when Queen Elizabeth I's representative Francis Throckmorton presented the Spanish Ambassador, Bernardino de Mendoza, with a specially constructed red briefcase filled with black puddings. In July 1997, Gordon Brown became the second chancellor to use a new box for the Budget. Made by industrial trainees at Babcock Rosyth Defence Ltd ship and submarine dockyard in Fife,
Exchequer of Pleas was held in York, London and Northampton at various times. By the late 12th century it had taken to sitting in a fixed location (the one body of government in England to do so), and by the 1170s it was possible to distinguish the Exchequer's work from that of the other parts of the "curia regis", although the king of the time considered the Exchequer to simply be an element of the "curia"; indeed, it was referred to as the "Curia Regis ad Scaccarium", or King's Court at Exchequer. The word "Exchequer" derives from the chequered cloth laid on a