Exchequer

The Exchequer was a court in charge of taxes and other obligations to the King of England, and the collection and management of the royal revenue. Hence, it came to mean the treasury; and, colloquially, pecuniary possessions in general; as, 'the company's exchequer' is low.

It takes its name from the medevial tradition of using a chessboard or checkers board for calculations of accounts.

Some civil cases for private debt were taken to the Court of the Exchequer using a legal fiction.