434 
° Professor Beckmann begitis: with ex- 
posing this work ; he-says, “Tt has an-at- 
tracting, title, hut it is the worst of its 
kind, written without correctnevs and 
without judgment, and without giving au- 
thorities;” Hist, of Inventions, i. 249, 
Enel. Transl. Now for some’ proofs of 
this.—Take the passage’in the’ Magazine. 
Under the word banquieres, he says, 
that bankers and bills of exchange take 
theirrise together; that the Jews, driven 
from France in 1181; gave lettres secrettes 
(observe reader, secret letters, which of 
course though privafe letters, were nego- 
ciable, a necessary qualification of bills 
of exchange,) and fronr these and the 
JGhibelines, both bankers: and’ bills of 
exchange arose together.—Indeed! the 
reader will find the whole passage of this 
ingenions author im the Monthly Maga- 
zine for June, 1803, page 413. Ingenious 
rogue! Secresy and public currency 
united! a PAL: ie 
A writer upon ofigins and mventions 
should have known that the taberne ar- 
gentaria, or MeNse numarglaria of the 
Romans were bankiny-louses, derived 
from the Trapezit# of the Grecks; that 
the rich deposited their cash there, 2s- 
signed over and paid ufoney by checks: 
that the bankers dealt in exchanges and 
discounts, and lent upon interest, inshort 
all the essentials of the moder practice. 
S6 Professor Beckman—Inventions, sii. 
49. So much for his’ absurd: origny’ of 
Bankers: His illustrious countryman, 
Du Cange, would have told him, that 
Philip Augustus in 1181, did notintroduce 
bankers; but, that ‘they were the money- 
changers of the New ‘Testament, and are 
mentioned in the Capitularies of Charles 
‘the Bald, who reigned in the ninth cen- 
tury. Bankers existed among the clas- 
sical ancients, and the origin of thera is 
totally distinct from that of bills of ex- 
change. Now for the latter: where he 
is. supported. by good -writers, Clei- 
rac, &c. é 
“The writers on bills of ‘exchange are 
principally Jurists, and are dividéd into 
thuse who find traces of them among the 
Romans,, and. those who give the origin 
to the expelled Jews, 
Bills of exchange are divided into pro- 
missory notes, and bills for acceptance 
and letters of credit. Now no person 
will assign the origin of riding to the pe- 
riods, when saddles and stirrups were In- 
troduced. 
Promissory notes, 
’ 
whatever was the 
form, certainly assimilated. the Roman 
ae 
Originrof Promissory Notes, Bills of Exchange, Kc. [Dec. t 
syngrapha, which it appears from Plat 
tus, iz Captivis and Suetonius, in Casar. 
xxlll. was generally a schedule written 
for the sake of evidence :dut it was used. 
in the same way, as are now promissory 
notes, Ammianus Marcellus says, “* The 
appointed day for paying the money, 
which be had been campelled to acknow- 
ledge that’ he. owed, by a syngrapha; 
being about to come,” adlapsure jam 
praestiluto die solvende pecunia, quam per 
syngrapham debere se confitert vi metuque 
compulsus est, Li. 22. Whatwas the forni 
of this syngvapha is notsaid, but that the 
passage refers, in idea and principle, to a 
bill becoming due, cannot -be disputed : 
anda promise of payment may have been’ 
inserted. 
Bills for acceptance in the modern 
form, with protests, &e. occur for certain 
in the 14th century, (See Beckmann, iti, 
461): but thercader will recoilect that the! 
Roman atétribuiio was a draft, and the’ 
matter will be made clearer by Letters 
of Credit... Cicero says, he hopes to find 
at Laodicea security (prades) by means 
of which he can remit the money of the 
republic without danger on ‘the passage. 
Epist. ad Famil. ii. 17. Now~ prades 
means, bail or securities; arid he must 
therefore mean that he would lodge the 
money in the hands of good securities, 
at Laodicea, who of course gave an at- 
tributio or draft for Rome ; because other- 
wise, how’could the money be more safe 
on the passage, or why should’ Cicero 
adopt. the expedient. Accordingly, - 
Ayrer, and Professor Beckmann, quote 
the passage in proof of the existence of 
bills of exchange, among the ancients, 
Hist. of Inventions, i. $85, Bankers: in 
the middie age drew upom each other, 
Du Cange, v. Canibitoria Litera. 
Origny might have’ seen, that’ lettres 
secretes are private Jetters of credit, and’ 
that the very term implies, that they were 
not bills of exchange in the full latitude: 
of the term, that is, public, negaciable, 
and’current, Besides the Jews, Guelphs, 
and Ghibellines, have no claim tu the in- 
vention; for are there not’ instances by 
hundreds, where the popes borrowed’ 
money from Italians, and gave them or- 
ders to receive it by drafts upon England, 
from vacant benefices, and compliments 
for presentation, &c. which in point: of 
principle is the same thing; and did not 
* See an oath taken to pay money, where 
now a note or bond would have been given in 
Froissart, xi. 574, Ed. Johnes. : 
our 
