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31 L. Q. Rev. 12 (1915)
Origins and Early History of Negotiable Instruments I

handle is hein.journals/lqr31 and id is 28 raw text is: THE ORIGINS AND EARLY HISTORY OF NEGOTIABLE INSTRUMENTS. L T HAT the origins of our modern negotiable instruments must be sought abroad is well known. When they came to the notice of English Courts in the sixteenth century they had already attained a development which enables us to see in germ the main features of the negotiability of our modern law. In these papers, therefore, we shall deal, first, with the mediaeval origins and the continental development of the negotiable instrument; and, secondly, with their introduction into England and their development by the common law. I. MEDIAEVAL ORIGINS AND CONTINENTAL DEVELOPMENT. Before we begin to discuss the question of the origins of these instruments it will perhaps be useful to concentrate our attention upon the object of our search by recalling the characteristic features 'of negotiability in our modern law. They are three in number: (i) Negotiable instruments are transferable by delivery if made payable to bearer, or by indorsement and delivery if made payable to order; and the transferee to whom they have been thus delivered can sue upon them in his own name. (ii) Consideration is pre- sumed. (iii) A transferee, who takes one of these instruments in good faith and for value, acquires a good title, even though his transferor had a defective title, or no title at all. Thus the ques- tions which we must try to answer are, first, what were the germs from which instruments having these qualities were developed; and, secondly, what were the technical processes by which this development took place? In order to solve these questions we must start by giving some account of certain documents in which a person places himself under a liability to pay or perform something either (a) to the creditor or to some one else nominated by the creditor and pro- ducing the document, or (b) to the nominee of the 'reditor producing the document, or (c) to the creditor or the producer of the document, or (d) to the producer of the document simply. These documents come from a very early period in the history of law, and were not necessarily confined to mercantile transactions. But, with the development of commerce, they necessarily came to be used most

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