Clearing Houses and Clearing House Certificates. § 36. No necessary relation between clearing houses and clearing NEGOTIABLE INSTRUMENTS # BY WILLIAM UNDERHILL MOORE, A. B., A. M. (Columbia University) Associate Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin. CHAPTER I. NEGOTIABILITY. § 1. Genesis of law of bills and notes in mercantile usage. The first case involving the law of bills and notes, which appears in the English law reports, was decided in 1603 (1). Doubtless there were earlier cases which came before the common law courts, but these must have been few, otherwise all of them would not have escaped the reporter. At the same time, we know that bills of exchange had been in use in England for at least a century and probably much longer, and on the continent of Europe from a still earlier time (2). Now such instruments could not have been effectively used in business, without a body (1) Martin v. Boure, Cro. Jac. 6. See opinion of Chief Justice Cockburn in Goodwin v. Robarts, L. R. 10 Exchequer 337. (2) See opinion of Cockburn, C. J., cited above. |