in commerce, (a practice which originally arose from permitting the master of a ship in a foreign country to hypothecate the ship in order to raise money to refit,) is in the nature of a mortgage of a ship; when the owner takes up money to enable him to carry on his voyage, and pledges the keel or bottom of the ship (pars pro toto) as a security for the repayment. In which case it is understood, that if the ship be lost, the lender loses also his whole money; but if it return in safety, then he shall receive back his principal, and also the premium or interest agreed upon, however it may exceed the legal rate of interest. And this is allowed to be a valid contract in all trading nations, for the benefit of commerce, and by reason of the extraordinary hazard run by the lender. And in this case, the ship and tackle, if brought home, are answerable (as well as the person of the borrower) for the money lent. But if the loan is not upon the vessel, but upon the goods and merchandise, which must necessarily be sold or exchanged in the course of the voyage, then only the borrower, personally, is bound to answer the contract; who therefore, in this case, is said to take up the money at respondentia. These terms are also applied to contracts for the repayment of money borrowed, not on the ship and goods only, but on the mere hazard of the voyage itself; when a man lends a merchant 1000l. to be employed in a beneficial trade, with condition to be repaid with extraordinary interest, in case such a voyage be safely performed: which kind of agreement is sometimes called fumus nauticum, and sometimes ufura maritima. But as this gave an opening for furious and gaming contracts, especially upon long voyages, it was enacted by the statute 19 Geo.II. c. 37. that all monies lent on bottomry, or at respondentia, on vessels bound to or from the East Indies, shall be expressly lent only upon the ship, or upon the merchandise; that the lender shall have the benefit of salvage; and that if the borrower has not on board effects to the value of the sum borrowed, he shall be responsible to the lender for so much of the principal as hath not been laid out, with legal interest and all other charges, though the ship and merchandise be totally lost.