Treasury. The Treasury has its antecedents far back in time as all governments have faced the need to secure revenues. But the recognizably modern Treasury has its principal roots in the late 17th and early 18th cents. Its emergence as a major organ of state was precipitated by a fairly sudden and large increase in government spending. Prior to the 20th cent. such an increase was invariably the result of military involvement, and at the beginning of the 18th cent., commitments in Ireland, Flanders, Africa, and the Caribbean accumulated a bill of £45 million. (See national debt.) The increase in expenditure produced a proliferation of stratagems to pay for it. One means was, of course, new taxation, which was imposed on salt, stamps, hackney coaches, and, especially, on land. The latter was a form of embryonic income tax in that it levied a fixed quota on each county from their landed ratepayers. New customs and excise duties were introduced and there were increases in those already in operation. Such an expansion in taxation required a bureaucracy to organize the operation of the revenue system and this, in turn, needed to be managed. This became the task of the Treasury. The Exchequer and Audit Department Act of 1866 established the practice of consolidating the annual tax proposals into a single Finance Bill. This created the first effective machinery for a retrospective annual audit of government spending, and effectively established the Treasury as custodian of financial propriety. It did not exercise control at that time because hostility to centralization was widespread. But it meant that the role of the Treasury was ‘cast in a narrow mould—essentially negative, harnessed to a defective concept of economy and a static concept of government. They meant adjudication, not inspiration; parsimony not efficiency; conservation, not growth.’ This perception was reinforced by two major concerns of 19th-cent. policy, elimination of the national debt and the preservation of free trade, both of which required tight fiscal control.

As government involvement in economic affairs increased in the 20th cent. together with the massive increase in the ratio of public spending to national income, so the role and influence of the Treasury became extremely important. Indeed, the most obvious manifestations of financial probity, including the control of public expenditure, maintenance of the exchange rate, and a tight fiscal and monetary stance to combat inflation have been persistently at the heart of the economic management strategy of the Treasury, which has always strongly favoured stabilization over growth. Very often, incumbent administrations have adopted the Treasury view and followed policies consistent with its aims. Its close links with the city of London and its control over the Bank of England have secured the primacy of financial considerations in economic policy. Thus policy was devoted to the restoration of the exchange rate after the First World War until the policy was rendered untenable by the depression at the end of the 1920s. But maintenance of the exchange rate dominated policy until the late 1960s and the eventual collapse of the Bretton Woods regime, and again in the late 1980s in the context of the Exchange Rate Mechanism. The other part of the strategy has been control of expenditure, an uphill struggle given the massive spending increases in two world wars and the demand-driven government commitments to pay pension, unemployment, and welfare benefits. The elimination of the national debt in the 1980s marked the success of a long-term Treasury aim, albeit very temporary, since the deficit reappeared at the end of the decade with a ferocious potency.

Clive H. Lee

treas·ur·y / ˈtrezhərē/ • n. (pl. -ur·ies) 1. the funds or revenue of a government, corporation, or institution: the country's pledge not to spend more than it has in its treasury. ∎  (Treasury) (in some countries) the government department responsible for budgeting for and controlling public expenditure, management of the national debt, and the overall management of the economy.2. a place or building where treasure is stored. ∎  a store or collection of valuable or delightful things: the old town is a treasury of ancient monuments.

Treasury originally, a room or building in which precious or valuable objects are kept, the funds or revenue of a state; later (in some countries), the government department responsible for budgeting for and controlling public expenditure, management of the national debt, and the overall management of the economy.

In the UK, the First Lord of the Treasury is the Prime Minister. The Treasury Bench is the front bench in the House of Commons occupied by the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and other members of the government.

Treasury Government department responsible for national finance and monetary policy. Dating from the Norman Conquest in the UK, when the chancellor and barons exercised control of royal revenues, the Treasury developed from the office of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. It became a separate ministry in the 19th century.

Treasury

a collection of valued things, of ten of wit, poems, or quotations.

Examples : great treasury of language, 1879; rich treasury of God’s word, 1673; treasury of divine knowledge, 1772.