The Early History of the Law of Bills and Notes: A Study of the Origins of Anglo-American Commercial Law (Cambridge Studies in English Legal History)

This study traces the history of the law of bills and notes in England from medieval times to the period in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries when bills played a central role in the domestic and international financial system. It challenges the traditional theory that English commercial law developed by incorporation of the concept of negotiability and other rules from an ancient body of customary law known as the law merchant. Professor Rogers shows that the law of bills was developed within the common law system itself, in response to changing economic and business practices. This account draws on economic and business history to explain how bills were actually used and to examine the relationship between the law of bills and economic and social controversies, including the medieval usury proscription, the disputes among mercantilist economic writers on the impact of exchange transactions on the balance of trade, and the early nineteenth-century dispute over the 'real bills' theory of banking and monetary policy. This is a history of the law of bills and notes, one of the most important branches of English commercial law, from medieval times to the period in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries when bills played a central role in the domestic and international financial system. It traces the development of legal rules, explains the commercial practices involved, and examines the relationship between law and economic and social controversies. It will be of interest to legal historians and economic and business historians. James Steven Rogers. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 253-264) And Index.