The Indorsements are as follow:

Pay to Mr. James Trotter, or order, value in account. Stockholm, the 3d of November, 1790. John Jacobson and Sons.

Pay to Mr. Levi Solomon, or order, value received. London, the 2d of December, 1790.

The following is a second Bill, in Italian.

James Trotter.

Londra, 24 Feb. 1791.

per 600 d'8r.

Ad uso pagate per questa seconda di cambio, una sol volta, al mio ordine, pezze sei cento di otto reale, Valuta Contoci, or Avuta del Medessimo, ponendole come per la d'aviso addio

Al Sar. Pietro Cambanelli, à Livorna.

La prima per accettaz. in Mano di Sr. Fralli, &c.

London, the 18th of May, 1791.

Thomas Deacon.

Exchange for 3000 D.

At usance pay this my first per exchange to yourselves, or to your own order, three thousand dollars of eight rials each, gold or silver, of the currency known to us this day, value of Mr. John Crew, which place to account, as per advice from

To Mess. Patrick Jansen and Co.

in Madrid.

Richard Bingham.

Patrick Jansen and Co.

When bills are drawn at usance, or so many days date, the acceptance must be at the bottom of the bill, as in that immediately preceding; but when they are drawn payable at so many days sight, the acceptance must express the day it is made; and an indorser may divide a bill, and make part of it payable to one, and part to another, which is done in the following manner: A. possessing a bill for 2001. sterling, indorses on the first 1221. payable to B. and on the second 781. payable to C. and sends the first to B. and the second to C. so indorsed, and on their presenting them to the party the bill is drawn on, he accepts the first for the 1221. and the second for the 781. in conformity to their indorsements.

In France, by an ordinance of the King, in March, 1673, it is directed, that the nature of the value received for bills of exchange shall be inserted in them, and expressly mentioned, whether it was in money, merchandize, or other effects, to prevent several abuses that had crept into this branch of commerce, by the bare insertion only of value received; for it was common to give a note, in payment of a bill of exchange, both expressing value received. And this method was found to be of great prejudice to trade, by occasioning many failures, which the afore-mentioned arret was intended to prevent. And in consequence thereof, there are four sorts of bills of exchange in that country, viz. the first expressing simply, value received; the second, value received in merchandise; the third, value in himself; and the fourth, value understood, The first and second need no paraphrase, being both alike in their negociation, and their distinction only answering some ends that may occur between the drawer and deliverer, in case of any failure or fraud. The third sort is, when a merchant draws a bill of

exchange on one who owes him money, which he sends to his friend or factor, to procure acceptance and payment; and as the acceptor is a creditor of his, an inconvenience might accrue to him, should he insert value received, as his friend or factor might pretend that it belonged to him, appearing by the bill that the drawer had received the value. The fourth is, when a person taking a bill of exchange from one on whose credit he cannot rely, gives the drawer his acknowledgment of receiving the bill, whose value he obliges himself to satisfy, on having advice that the bill is paid; but if the bill returns protested, it is again exchanged for the note, the drawer defraying the charges. The times for which bills are made payable are also four, viz. at so many days sight, eight, ten, fifteen, &c. and the time does not commence running till the day after it is presented and accepted; so that a bill drawn payable at ten days sight, and accepted the last day of April, is not demandable till the 11th of May, and the reason is, that the day of acceptance which is the 30th of April, is not counted, but the reckoning begins only on the 1st of May; the 10th of May, on which the bill expires, is not counted neither, because the 10th does not finish till midnight, and consequently an action cannot be brought against the acceptor till the 11th of May, which begins the moment succeeding that on which the 10th finishes; and in effect, if one begins to count from the 1st of May, and continues to the 10th at midnight inclusive, there will be found no more than ten whole days, which is the time the acceptor had to pay the bill in.

The second method of drawing bills, is to make them payable at a day certain. For example-a drawer gives his bill to be paid on the 1st of May, which according to what is said in the preceding case, is not demandable till the second, as the day of its falling due is never counted.

And there is no obligation to procure acceptance to a bill of this tenor, as the time goes on whether accepted or not; but it is otherwise with the foregoing, payable at so many days sight; though it is certainly more advisable to get it accepted, as by this means another debtor is added to the drawer, which becomes a new security.

The third time of bills is at usance, which is according to the places drawn on, double usance, or two usances, &c. and though there is no more obligation to procure acceptance to this than to the preceding one, as the time runs on from the day of its date, yet the same reasons subsist for soliciting its acceptance as occurred then.

And there having been formerly many disputes about the time of bills falling due that were drawn payable at usance, double usance, &c. the King by this ordinance has regulated it for the future, by making usance to be thirty days, whether the months have more or less in them, the thirty days to be counted from the day the bill is dated, and not to be demanded till that succeeding the expiration of the thirtieth, as has been observed in those bills payable at so many days sight, and at a day certain; but these laws are only binding in France, on such bills as are payable there, but not on those drawn from thence on other countries, where different usages and customs are practised.

The fourth sort of terms of bills, is, when merchants draw them payable at Lyons in the fair time, which they term payment, and which they have four times a year, as has been before mentioned.

When honesty reigned among the merchants, these bills payable in payment at Lyons, were never accepted by writing, he on whom they were drawn only said verbally, "seen,' and the bearer noted it in his book accordingly. The Lyonnois practised this for a long time without any accident; but integrity became slack by the corruption of the times,

and some bankers having denied that bills had been presented them, the merchants for a greater security now have them accepted in writing.

It was necessary that the bankers and merchants of Lyons, to establish this disposition in the acceptations, and to restrain many other abuses committed in their city, should seek a remedy, and therefore they proposed a regulation to the governor, &c. thereof, the which was approved of, and allowed by an arret of council, and registered in the Parliament of Paris in the following words, viz. "That the acceptations of the said bills of exchange shall be made by writing, dated and signed by those on whom they are drawn, or by persons duly empowered by a procuration, of which the minutes shall remain with the notary; and all those which shall be made by factors, deputies, and others, not furnished with procurations, shall be null and of no effect against him on whom they are drawn, save the recourse against the acceptor."

This regulation, which was only for the city of Lyons, proved a sufficient remedy for the abuse that was committed by the want of acceptance to bills; but this did not in any shape remedy those arising from a conditional acceptance in these words, accepté pour repondre au temps, accepted to answer in time, for this is the same as saying nothing, and is contrary to the public surety; because a merchant of Paris or other places, drawing a bill of exchange on his correspondent at Lyons, who shall have no effects of his in hand, and who only accepting it with the circumstance, to answer in time, not being willing to advance for his friend, when the season of the fair, or payment is come, if remisses are made to him, he pays a creditor with a debt, if he has the opportunity, or else the contents of the bill are discharged at the end of the payment; but, if he has no provision made him, he lets the bill be protested; so that a merchant who does not understand this custom, and who has paid his money three months before, comes upon the drawers or bearers of orders, who very often have failed in the mean time; whereas if he on whom the bill is drawn, accepts purely and simply when it is presented him, he in whose favour it was would have had immediate security, and its payment when fallen due.

And however suitable to the interest of the Lyonnois this practice might be, as they generally accepted without effects in hand, yet as it placed them on a different footing from every other trader in the kingdom, it was judged but reasonable by other merchants to find out a method that should put them all on a level, and oblige those of Lyons to a pure and simple acceptation; but though this was observed by some considerable bankers, who drew their bills, or took them with the insertion of such words as would not admit of evasion in the acceptor, yet this did not answer the intent, as many of Lyons would not accept the draughts on them in any other manner than that formerly mentioned; therefore to remedy the inconvenience and disorders which this occasioned in trade, and to place all his Majesty's subjects on a level, he directed by his ordinance, "That all bills of exchange shall be accepted by writing purely and simply; abrogating the custom of a verbal acceptance, or by these words, veu sans accepter, seen without accepting, or accepted to answer in time, and all other conditional acceptations, which. shall be deemed a refusal, and the bills may be protested."

I mention those circumstances, in which I think most European nations are interested, as there is hardly one from whence a considerable trade is not carried on with Lyons, either in the commercial or banking way.

And though the happy improvement of our own silk manufactures has very considerably lessened for some years past, our trading engagements with that powerful city, yet there still remains such an intercourse, that the knowledge of transacting business there may occasionally concern many of my readers.

I have now done with bills of exchange, and exerted my endeavours to reduce every

necessary observation on them into as small a compass as the nature of the subject would permit, consistent with rendering myself intelligible, and the rules I have laid down clear and practicable; and though I might, without incurring an imputation of prolixity, have swelled a discussion of this important article into a volume instead of a chapter, I hope I have left nothing unsaid that could contribute to my purpose of clearing up every difficulty which might arise to my readers in their exchanging business; having carefully collected and communicated the sentiments of the best writers in all languages on this topic, so far as they were agreeable to that experience which a long practice in this branch of business has furnished me with; and I flatter myself that I should not be accused of vanity if I assert, that my labours herein, and endeavours to have every section such as to stand the strictest scrutiny, have by far exceeded those of other writers that have gone before me, who either have superficially run over the matter, or blindly propagated the errors of one another, through ignorance or sloth, which I have studied to rectify, and, I flatter myself, with success.

Before I treat of arbitrations, I shall say something of brokers, as a proper appendage to the preceding discourse, though they are not so much concerned in the exchanges of money and bills as they were formerly; the revolutions that happen in commerce as well as politics, having thrown the greatest part of that business into the hands of the bankers in London, and in most of the capital cities of Europe.

OF BROKERS.

BROKERS are persons sworn and authorised by the magistracy of the place where they act, and such are always regarded in preference to others, who interfere in these negociations without being licensed; as credit is given to the personal evidence, and to the books of sworn brokers in all courts of justice, and out of court, in all cases of arbitration or compromise, though it is not admitted from the others; and in most places, those who illegally exercise the function, are fined for acting without permission.

The number of sworn brokers in London is unlimited; at Amsterdam there are three hundred and seventy-five christians, and twenty-two jews, acting in trade and exchanges; besides which, there are many who practise as they do here, unsworn and unlicensed. The number of these at Amsterdam, is more than double that of the sworn brokers, and they go by the name of ambulatory brokers, and it is to be observed, that a merchant runs great risks in employing them, for in case of ligitation, the bargains and contracts they have made are liable to be rendered null and void.

It is the duty of brokers to be diligent, faithful, and secret, whether their dealings be in exchange, or purchases and sales, as they are mediators in all negociations; and those licensed may properly be called public ones, from the nature of their business, which leads them to a general employ between merchants, traders, and remitters. They are called at Amsterdam, as well as here, brokers, courtiers or mackelaers, though on the coasts of Provence, and up the Levant, they are termed censals: and at Paris, the exchange brokers have, for about a century past, bartered this appellation for that of agents; and to render the office yet more honourable, about fifty years ago the quality of King's Counsellor was added to it, though the business is the same, however the denomination may differ.

Those who excercise the function of brokers ought to be men of honour, and capable of their busines: and the more so, as both the credit and fortune of those that employ

them may in some measure be said to be in their hands, and therefore they should avoid babbling, and be prudent in their office; which consists in one sole point, that is, to hear all, and say nothing; so that they ought never to speak of the negociations transacted by means of their invention, or relate any ill report, which they may have heard against a drawer, nor offer his bill to those who have spread it.

Before offering any bills of exchange, which a broker is commissioned about, he ought to ask the person he applies to, whether he wants bills for such a place, or hath money to dispose of; and if the merchant queries whose the bills are which he has to negociate, he ought not to inform him, till his reply lets him know whether he wants any or not.

When a merchant has discovered his intentions to draw, or that he has bills to negociate, the broker should offer them, purely and simply, without any exaggeration in their favour or disfavour; and if he to whom they are proposed refuses them, with saying they do not suit him, it would be not only improper, but impertinent in the broker, to ask the reason of such a refusal, and the height of imprudence in him to amplify their goodness, or the solvency of their owner, in order to induce the refuser to change his intentions, and take them; on the contrary, he ought to take care never to deceive the contracting parties, but to be sincere in all his actions, without using any artifice to attain his purposed end in his negociations; and above all, he should avoid offering things for which he has no authority, as he may be taken at his word, and have the negociation remain for his own account, to his no small disadvantage, if known, both of purse and credit; and the same may happen in purchases and sales, as in exchanges.

way

If the owner of goods allows the broker through whom he sells them, to sell as a principal, the purchaser of goods so sold is discharged by payment to the broker in any which would have been sufficient had he been the real owner. Coates v. Lewis. 1 Campb. C. N. p. 444. And if goods are bought by a broker, the principal is liable to the vendor if called upon when payment becomes due, although he has previously paid the price of the goods to the broker; but he is discharged if the day of payment is allowed to pass by without any demand being made upon him. Kymen v. Suwereropp, Ib. 109. 180. c. The authority of a broker may be countermanded at any time before a memorandum of the contract of sale is written, and signed, by him, pursuant to the statute of frauds, although he has previously entered into a verbal agreement to sell the goods. Farmer v. Robinson. 2 Campb. C. N. P. 339. n.

Where goods are sold by a broker without disclosing his principal, the purchaser is justified in paying him in a different manner from that stipulated by the terms of the contract. Aliter where the principal is disclosed at the time of sale. Blackburn v. Scholes. ib. 343, and the circumstance of the persons selling the goods being described as sworn brokers, is not sufficient notice to the purchaser that they are only agents to prevent him dealing with them as principals. Ib.

If goods in the city of London are sold by a broker, to be paid for by a bill of exchange, the vendor has a right within a reasonable time, if not satisfied with the sufficiency of the purchaser, to annul the contract. Five days considered more than a reasonable time. 2 Camb. 530.

Where a broker is authorised by one person to sell goods, and to buy such goods for another, an entry on his books of a sale of these goods from the one to the other, signed by him is in general a binding contract between the parties: the bought and sold note, which is a copy of this entry, is not sent to the parties for their approbation, but to inform them of the terms of the contract. Keyman v. Neale. Ib. 337.

A broker should take care in making an agreement between two persons, to be well assured of the place to be drawn on, and when it is; where there is a settled usance, he has 4 K

VOL. I.