

It originally carried responsibility for the Exchequer, the medieval English institution for the collection and auditing of royal revenues. The chancellor is the third-oldest major state office in English and British history, and in recent times has come to be the most powerful office in British politics after the prime minister. The last Lord Chief Justice to serve in this way was Lord Denman in 1834.
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Formerly, in cases when the chancellorship was vacant, the Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench would act as chancellor pro tempore. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, it was common for the prime minister also to serve as Chancellor of the Exchequer if he sat in the Commons the last Chancellor who was simultaneously prime minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer was Stanley Baldwin in 1923. The chancellor is now always second lord of the Treasury as one of at least six lords commissioners of the Treasury, responsible for executing the office of the Treasurer of the Exchequer – the others are the prime minister and Commons government whips.

Responsible for all economic and financial matters, the role is equivalent to that of a finance minister in other countries. As one of the four Great Offices of State, the chancellor is a high-ranking member of the British Cabinet. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, often abbreviated to Chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and head of His Majesty's Treasury.
