It is evident that all the functions of the officials and bureaus described above must have been performed in some fashion in the time of Suleiman. The conservative character of Turkish institutions simplifies the problem of determining how they were performed. It has been seen, partly by external and partly by internal evidence, that the bureaus of the treasury department persisted from the time of Mohammed II to the end of the eighteenth century with few changes. Accordingly, the inference may fairly be made that the same was true of the chancery department. Moreover, the chief officials of the later date are mentioned in sixteenth-century writings, among them the _Kiaya_ of the grand vizier, the _Chaush-bashi_, and the _Reis Effendi_; Junis Bey held the position of chief interpreter;[610] and the duties of Suleiman’s master of ceremonies must have been important. The great change in the chancery in the interval was the decline of the _Nishanji_ from the highest place in the department to one of little importance, and the rise of the _Reis Effendi_ from a subordinate place to the top. From of old the _Nishanji_ had had the duty of affixing the sultan’s signature to documents; but in early Ottoman days, when the pen was of very little consequence in comparison with the sword, he had been held in small esteem. He was responsible, however, for the accurate and legal formulation of the papers which he signed; and as the nation grew his importance increased, till by the sixteenth century he had become a great official, clearly the head of the chancery department, and the recipient of a large salary. A description of about the year 1537 says of the _Nishanji_: “There is a _Teskereji-bashi_, who has the duty of engrossing the ordinances and commands of the prince and the court, when it has transmitted them to him, and is like a general secretary of the commands, or recorder of the documents of the prince, which are called _Teskereh_; and it is also his duty, in consultation with the pashas, to revise the writings and take care that they contain no ambiguous expressions, as though he were a keeper of the seals. The present occupant of the office has seven thousand ducats of revenue from fiefs, and a large number of slaves, and other lesser recorders who also prepare commands, licenses, safe-conducts, and other letters as there may be need. These are paid here for their trouble, and they may receive three or four hundred livres. It is said that the present [_Nishanji_] is so just a man, that he has never in his life received a _sou_ from any one with whom he has transacted business.”[611]