Chancellor of the Exchequer his duty to distribute as fairly as he can." The chancellor has considerable control over other departments as it is the Treasury which sets Departmental Expenditure Limits. The amount of power this gives to an individual chancellor depends on his personal forcefulness, his status within his party and his relationship with the prime minister. Gordon Brown, who became chancellor when Labour came into Government in 1997, had a large personal power base in the party. Perhaps as a result, Tony Blair chose to keep him in the same position throughout his ten years as prime minister; making Brown an unusually
Exchequer of Pleas nine continued in office after the crowning of a new monarch. The King's Remembrancer was the chief clerk of the Exchequer, handling all bills of equity. He was the equivalent of the Court of Chancery's Master of the Rolls, in that he headed up the clerical side of the court. As well as his duties to the judicial body, the King's Remembrancer also handled the revenue side of the Exchequer, a jurisdiction established in the 14th century. He was originally able to appoint all the sworn clerks, but by the 16th century this jurisdiction had been limited to appointing one