HER MAJESTY'S (HM) TREASURY

The United Kingdom's economics and finance ministry, responsible for formulating and implementing financial and economic policy. Her Majesty's Treasury's stated aim is "to raise the rate of sustainable growth and achieve rising prosperity and a better quality of life with economic and employment opportunities for all."

According to the HM Treasury, the Anglo-Saxon Treasury collected taxes (including the danegeld, first levied as a tribute to the Vikings to persuade them - sometimes unsuccessfully - to stay away) and controlled expenditure as far back as 1066. HM Treasury claims that the first "treasurer" was probably "Henry the Treasurer". Henry owned land around Winchester and was referred to in the Domesday Book, a systematic tax assessment of the whole country undertaken by the Treasury.