about to send his son to Athens, inquires whether he can have credit upon Athens for what money his son may have occasion for, or whether the young man must carry it with him in specie.  Cicero desired to accomplish what is now effected by a negotiable bill of exchange; and if such instruments had been in use, he would have gone to the forum and purchased a bill on Athens for the requisite amount.  But as it was, though he may possibly have found some one at Rome who had money owing to him by some one at Athens, and may have arranged with this Roman creditor that this debt should be paid to his son at Athens by the debtor there, it is quite certain that no instrument answering to our negotiable bill of exchange was used in the transaction.

Though the discovery or invention of bills of exchange cannot be ascribed with certainty to any precise period, they are for the first time unmistakably referred to in laws of the commercial nations of Southern Europe in the latter part of the thirteenth century, and they probably came into frequent use soon after that time.  Perhaps the earliest bill of exchange of which we have an authentic copy is one made at the beginning of the fifteenth century, and which approaches pretty nearly to the form now in use.  A translation of the instrument from the Italian. in which it was written, is as follows:—­

“Francisco de Prato and Company at Barcelona.  In the name of God, Amen.  The 28th day of April, 1404.  Pay by this first of exchange at usance to Pietro Gilberto and Pietro Olivo one thousand scuti at ten shillings Barcelona money per scuto, which thousand scuti are in exchange with Giovanni Colombo at twenty-two grosses per scuto, and place to our account; and Christ keep you.”  “ANTONIO QUARTI SAB.  DI BRUGIS.”

For this curious relic of commercial history we are indebted to the fact that the mercantile company upon which the bill was drawn failed to pay it, whereupon the parties fell into a dispute about the matter of damages, and the magistrates of Bruges wrote to those of Barcelona, setting forth this bill with the facts of the case, and requesting information upon the usage respecting bills of exchange in their city.

A bill drawn in England about the year 1500 bears less resemblance to the form now used, and instead of commencing and ending with the devout expressions of the Italian bill, it has the formal words, “Be it known to all M’e y’t I,” etc., and “hereto I bynde me myn executours and all my Goodis, wheresoever they may be founde, in Wytnesse whereof I have written and sealyed this Byll, the X Day of,” etc.  It was made payable to a person named, “or to the Bringer of this Byll.”