Budget
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Budget. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a bag or package of miscellaneous articles, as a budget of old clothes or a budget of news. In the history of England the budget is an annual statement of finances read by the chancellor of the exchequer before the House of Commons. It contains a statement of expenses necessary for the coming year, and proposes a scale of taxation to provide the means. Sometimes the chancellor is able to propose a reduction of taxation in certain directions, and sometimes he is under the grave necessity of proposing extraordinary expenditure and grievous taxation. The term is coming into general use in discussing the finances of any nation. The amount of annual expenditure is given in statistics accompanying the countries of importance. See Parliament 2026 Editor's Note: The word is a joke that stuck: a bougette was a little leather bag, and the chancellor was said to "open the budget" when he unfastened his case of papers. The ritual survives — the Chancellor of the Exchequer still holds up a red despatch box for photographers before delivering the Budget , and the box used for over a century is now retired to a museum. (Ed: BR 2026-06-04)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the annual statement relative to the finances of a country, made by the proper financial functionary, in which is presented a balance sheet of the actual income and expenditure of the past year, and an estimate of the income and expenditure for the coming year, together with a statement of the mode of taxation proposed to meet such expenditure.