Bills of exchange cease in England to be documents of debt on the expiration of six years from the time named for payment.
In foreign bills, the term “usance” is sometimes employed to express the period of running in foreign bills. It means a certain time fixed by custom, as between any two places. An usance between this kingdom and Rotterdam, Hamburg, Altona, or Paris, or any place in France, is one calendar month from the date of the bill; an usance between us and Cadiz, Madrid or Bilboa, two; an usance between us and Leghorn, Genoa, or Venice, three.]
FOOTNOTES
[499] Disp. i. quæst. 4. n. 23.
[500] Consil. 348.
[501] Memorias Historicas sobre la Marina Commercio, etc. de Barcelona, por D. Ant. de Capmany. Madrid, 1779, 2 vols. 4to. The following important articles will be found in this work:—A custom-house tariff, written in Latin, of the year 1221, in which occur a great number of remarkable names and articles of merchandise not explained. Another of the like kind, of the year 1252. Letters of power to appoint consuls in distant countries, such as Syria, Egypt, &c., dated in the years 1266, 1268, and 1321. An ordinance of the year 1458, respecting insurance, which required that under-writing should be done in the presence of a notary, and declared polices o scriptures privades to be null and void. A privilegium of the emperor Andronicus II. to the merchants of Barcelona, written in Greek and Spanish, in 1290. Account of the oldest Spanish trade with wool, silk, salt, and saffron; and of the oldest guilds or incorporated societies of tradesmen at Barcelona, &c.
[502] Vol. ii. p. 382.