Tonight, Alistair Darling will follow legions of his predecessors when he heads east across London to deliver the annual Mansion House speech to the City's bankers and merchants. It is thought that the first speech was given in the late eighteenth century, although no Mansion House records survive before 1931. The speech is seen as the Chancellor's key statement on economic policy. This year, as the economy labours under the pressures of rising inflation, falling house prices and the credit crunch, and with the spectre of Northern Rock still lingering, the speech will be watched very closely indeed. But before Mr Darling takes the stand, we have drawn together our pick of Chancellors past at the Mansion House.

Austen Chamberlain, June 1904

Mr Darling's first year in office has been a difficult one, but he would not be the only Chancellor to have faced a tough job. Perhaps the beleaguered incumbent of Number 11 might find some comfort in Austen Chamberlain's Mansion House speech. "The lot of the Chancellor of the Exchequer is not altogether a happy one," Mr Chamberlain said in 1904. "He has few friends, and the few he has are those of whom he should most beware, for their approach is the most insidious, and their indignation - if he refuses their claims - is the most marked and the most violent; and while he is exposed daily and weekly to these large demands, he can count upon no sympathy when the day comes to pay the bill..." The half-brother of Neville Chamberlain, Mr Chamberlain was later knighted and went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925.

David Lloyd George, July 1911

Times Archive, 1904: Austen Chamberlain at Mansion House

"The lot of the Chancellor of the Exchequer is not altogether a happy one..."

• Times Archive, 1911: Mr. Lloyd George On British Prestige

• Times Archive, 1978: Mr Callaghan ready for long winter in pay battle

• Times Archive, 1985: Lawson admits £M3 defeat

In a notable departure from the fiscal and financial focus of the speech, David Lloyd George addressed the question of Britain's international role and responsibility. Mr Lloyd George's words were prompted by the Agadir crisis earlier that month, when Germany had sent its gunboat Panther to the port of Agadir as a show of force and in protest at French influence in Morocco and the Congo.

Mr Lloyd George warned: "...if a situation were to be forced upon us in which peace could only be preserved by the surrender of the great and beneficent position Britain has won by centuries of heroism and achievement, by allowing Britain to be treated where her interests were vitally affected as if she were of no account in the Cabinet of nations, then I say emphatically that peace at that price would be a humiliation intolerable for a great country like ours to endure. National honour is no party question. The security of our great international trade is no party question; the peace of the world is much more likely to be secured if all nations realize fairly what the conditions of peace must be.... "

Before the speech there was a protest of a different kind: The Times reported that "a young man in evening dress" had asked Mr Lloyd George what the Government's intentions were in relation to women's suffrage. "He was at once removed and taken in charge by the police. He admitted that he had come to the banquet uninvited, but pleaded, as if in mitigation of his conduct, that he had not tasted any of the things provided."

Denis Healey, October 1978

Just weeks before the long winter of discontent set in, Denis Healey's fifth address to the City was both optimistic and cautionary. He stressed that the economic prospects for 1979 rested solely on inflation, "the father and mother of unemployment", urged the trade unions to co-operate over pay, and argued that the Labour Government of the day was the first to give monetary policy the importance it deserved. His words followed a stark warning from the Prime Minister, Jim Callaghan, who had said the Government would not give into inflation - even if it meant a harsh winter of industrial action.

Nigel Lawson, October 1985

Nigel Lawson's Mansion House speech in October 1985 was viewed by some as the death knell for monetary targeting. Shifting the course of monetary policy, Mr Lawson announced that the Government would no longer target M3, a measure of the money supply, and admitted that his own target for sterling had been too low. The Times leader column the following day said that Mr Lawson's abandonment of the policy, the longest-standing of the Thatcher government's monetary measures, "calls to mind Bismarck descending from the Prussian ship of state". Mrs Thatcher's second Chancellor also used this speech to affirm that "the inflation rate must be the judge and jury".

Gordon Brown, 1997 - 2007

Gordon Brown might seem an unlikely fashion rebel, but with all the men-of-the-people confidence of the New Labour administration, the Iron Chancellor made a significant departure from tradition at his Mansion House debut in 1997. Rather than the customary black tie, Mr Brown wore a lounge suit - described by his aides as "his working clothes" - to deliver his speech to the City in July 1997, and he made dressing down a tradition of his own at the annual event.

Explore Economics

• Pre-Budget Report 2008

• Budget 2009

• World Economic Forum

• The Times MPC

Times Recommends

• C&G axed - 1,660 jobs to be lost
• UK house prices rise 1.1% as buyers return
• Mixed reaction to US banks repaying bailouts