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 royal demesne lands and from the county "farm" (a form of local taxation). The Chancellor of the Exchequer then questioned him concerning debts owed by private individuals. By 1176, the 23rd year of the Reign of Henry II which is the date of the "Dialogue concerning the Exchequer", the Exchequer was split into two components: the purely administrative "Exchequer of Receipt", which collected revenue, and the "Exchequer of Pleas", a law court concerned with the King's revenue. Appeals were to the Court of Exchequer Chamber. Following the proclamation of Magna Carta, legislation was enacted whereby the Exchequer would maintain the