BILL of Entry, an account of the goods entered at the custom-house, both inwards and outwards. In this bill must be expressed the name of the merchant exporting or importing, the quantity and species of merchandise, and whither transported, or from whence.
Bill of Exchange is an open letter of request from one man to another, desiring him to pay a sum named therein to a third person on his account; by which means a person in the most distant part of the world may have money re-
mitted to him from any trading country. For instance, if A lives in Jamaica, and owes B, who lives in England, L.1000, and if C be going from England to Jamaica, he may pay B this L.1000, and take a bill of exchange drawn by B in England upon A in Jamaica, and receive it when he arrives there. B therefore receives his debt by transferring it to C, who carries over his money in paper credit, without danger of loss or robbery. The person, however, who writes this letter, is called, in law, the drawer; he to whom it is written, the drawee; and the third person or negotiator to whom it is payable, whether specially named or described generally as the bearer, is called the payee.
These bills are either foreign or inland; foreign, when drawn by a merchant residing abroad upon his correspondent in England, or vice versa; and inland, when both the drawer and the drawee reside within the kingdom. Formerly foreign bills of exchange were much more regarded in the eye of the law than inland ones, as being thought of more public concern in the advancement of trade and commerce; but now, by several statutes, inland bills of exchange are put upon the same footing as foreign ones, so that in law there is no manner of difference between them. In drawing foreign bills of exchange, it is customary to frame two or three of the same tenor and date, to be sent by different conveyances, that in case of accident the person to whom they are transmitted may not be disappointed; in which case it is mentioned in the body of the bill, that it is the first, second, or third bill of exchange, and when one is paid it discharges all the rest.
Bill of Lading is an acknowledgement signed by the master of a ship, and given to a merchant or other person, containing an account of the goods which the master has received on board from that individual, with a promise to deliver them at an intended place for a certain remuneration or freightage.