ABSTRACT
The English Exchequer has been defined as the purse of the nation. In India there is no one purse for receiving and making payments, but there is an organized system for receiving and issuing money, which is suited to the Indian conditions. There is a Treasury in every district to which are attached a number of sub-treasuries. Besides the treasuries the Imperial Bank with its branches is an institution for doing the financial work of the Government. The treasuries and the branches of the Imperial Bank are inter-related and work under the direction of the officers, who take their orders from the Finance Department of the Government of India. There are about three hundred treasuries and twelve hundred sub-treasuries, three local head offices, and ninety branches of the Imperial Bank. They, taken together, constitute what may be called the financial nervous system of India. They receive the stimulus from contact with the concrete facts, convey the messages to the centre, and receive the command to act. The response to the stimulus is ordinarily automatic. The local centres can be left alone to carry on the financial work according to the standing regulations—the official registrations. But when there is need for readjustment or co-ordination among the different centres, the intervention of the central authority is necessary. The system is well-regulated and so designed as to embrace all the financial operations of the Government.
