FINANCE, INDUSTRY, TRANSPORTATION. 



487 



Factor. An agent intrusted with the possession of 

 goods for sale belonging to his principal. A broker, on 

 the other hand, has not the custody of the goods of his 

 principal. 



Faculty. A privilege or dispensation granted by an 

 ecclesiastical court in certain cases. 



False Pretenses. The criminal offense of obtaining 

 any chattel, money, or valuable security by means of a 

 false pretense ; it is punishable by transportation, tine 

 or imprisonment. 



Face. The amount expressed on a note or draft. 

 Failure. Act of becoming insolvent. 

 Facsimile. An exact copy. 



Fancy Stocks. Term applied to stocks subject to 

 sudden fluctuation in price. 



Favor. A note or draft is said to be in favor of the 

 payee. 



Fee Simple. That estate or interest in lands which 

 a person holds to him and his heirs forever. During 

 his life he possesses over it a perfectly free and unre- 

 strained power of disposition, and on" his death, with- 

 out having alienated it by deed or will, it descends to 

 his heirs, both lineal and collateral, male and female, 

 according to an established order of descent. 



Felony. Formerly denned as comprising " all capi- 

 tal crimes below treason." It may now more accurately 

 be defined as comprising all crimes occasioning a for- 

 feiture of lands or goods or both. 

 Feme Covert. A married woman. 

 Feme Sole. An unmarried woman. 

 Feoffment. A mode of conveyance of lands in fee, 

 accompanied by certain solemnities. It is rarely, if ever, 

 now used. 



Fiat. An order or warrant for a thing to be done er 

 executed. 



Fieri Facias. A writ of execution, by which the 

 sheriff is commanded to levy the debt and damages of 

 the goods and chattels of the defendant. 



Finding. A tinder of goods may appropriate them to 

 his own use if he really believes when he takes them 

 that the owner cannot be found ; but if a jury should 

 say that the tinder appropriated the goods, not having 

 (or that he could reasonably be supposed not to have had) 

 such belief at the time of appropriation, it amounts to a 

 theft, and can be punished criminally. 



Finding a Bill. The grand jury either find or ignore 

 the bills against prisoners ; if they find a true bill, the 

 case goes into court, and is tried. 



Fire Policy. An instrument by which an insurance 

 company guarantees to a person, who has insured his 

 property, the payment of a sum of money, if it is injured 

 or destroyed by tire. 



Fixtures. This term is generally used to denote those 

 personal chattels which, though annexed to the free- 

 hold of demised premises, a tenant is nevertheless en- 

 titled to remove. They consist of trade fixtures, and of 

 those put up for the ornament or convenience of the 

 premises. 



Finance. Revenue ; income ; pertaining to money. 

 Financier. An officer of finance ; one having cha'rge 

 of the revenue. 



Firm. A partnership, trading house, or its name. 

 Fiscal. Pertaining to a treasury or revenue. 

 Flat. A term signifying that stocks are sold without 

 reference to accumulated interest ; low in price ; dull as 

 to sales. 



Flotsam. Goods which float after being thrown over- 

 board at sea or in case of shipwreck. The goods thus 

 cast away are called jetsam or jettison, if they sink and 

 remain under water. 



Foreclosure. The barring the equity of redemption 

 on mortgages. 



Foreign Bill of Exchange. A bill drawn by a per- 

 son abroad, and accepted in the United States, or vice 

 versa. 



Forfeiting Recognizances. When a person who has 

 entered into recognizances fails to comply with their 

 conditions, the same are forfeited or estreated. 



Forfeiture. A punishment consequent upon the 



commission of certain criminal offenses or illegal acts. 



Forgery. The crime of counterfeiting a signature, 



seal, or mark ; or the fraudulent alteration of a writing 



to the prejudice of another. 



Foreclose. To cut off the power of redemption 

 under a mortgage. 



Forestall. To buy goods before they reach the mar- 

 ket. 



Folio. Page of a book, usually the two opposite 

 pages. 

 F. O. B. Free on board ; the bill or invoice with 



F. O. B. includes the transporting to the shipping port 

 and all the shipping expenses. 



Foreign Exchange. Drafts drawn on the financial 

 centers of Europe ; for instance, London, Berlin, or 

 Paris. Drafts on London are called Sterling Ex- 

 change, as they are drawn in pounds sterling. 



Franchise. A royal privilege to which a subject is 

 entitled as a fair, a market, a free warren, a park. 



Fraud. A dishonest and illegal artifice, by which 

 undue advantage is taken of another, or by which the 

 interests of that other are unjustly prejudiced. Fraud 

 strikes at the root of every transaction, and vitiates 

 every contract, whether by record, deed, or otherwise. 



Freehold. Land held in fee simple, fee tail, or at 

 least for life. 



Freight. The remuneration due to the owner of a 

 ship for the conveyance of goods or merchandise, on 

 which he has a lien for the freight. 



Franc. A French silver coin, value about twenty 

 cents. 



Frank. A free letter. 



Free Trade. The policy of conducting international 

 commerce without duties. 



Fractional Orders. Orders for less than 5,000 bushels 

 of grain or 100 shares of stock are called fractional 

 orders, as the above amounts represent the units of 

 speculation. Fractional orders are entirely regular, 

 both on the Chicago Board of Trade and the Stock 

 Exchanges. Orders are executed in 1,000 bushel lots of 

 wheat, but not in corn or oats. Neither is there any 

 market for small quantities of provisions or cotton. 



Frozen Out. Said of deals or trades closed out 

 compulsorily because of inability to further protect 

 contracts with re-margins. 



Funded Debt. The public debt of this country, 

 consisting of an immense sum which, from time to 

 time, has been lent to government by individuals, and 

 which they or their assigns receive interest for, out of 

 the taxes. 



Future Estates. Estates not in possession, but in 

 expectancy, as a remainder. 



Funds. Stock or capital, a sum of money. 



Funded. Put into a permanent loan on which an 

 annual interest is paid. 



Futures. Buyers of cash grain protect themselves 

 against possible loss by selling an agreed amount for 

 future delivery in some general market, usually Chicago. 

 Such contracts are called futures because they do not 

 terminate until some designated month in the future. 

 These transactions pass from hand to hand and may be 

 turned over hundreds and thousands of times in an 

 active market before maturity, and this is called deal- 

 ing in futures. Nearly all speculative operations are in 

 futures. 



Gamlshee. The party in whose hands money, due 

 to a defendant, is attached. 



Gain. Profit; benefit; increase in wealth. 



Gauging. Measuring the contents of casks, etc. 



Gist. The main point of a case ; the turning point. 



Gift. A voluntary conveyance or gift of lands or 

 joods. If of the former, it is liable to be defeated in 

 She lifetime of the grantor, by his conveying the same 

 ands to a purchaser, for a valuable consideration, even 

 though with notice of the prior gift. 



Gold and Silver Certificates. Certificates issued 

 by the United States government, circulating as money, 

 on the security of gold deposited with the government 

 'or that purpose, or of silver coin belonging to itself. 



Gross "Weight. Weight of goods including case, bag, 

 etc. 



Grace, Days of. The name given to the days of in- 

 dulgence allowed to the acceptor of a bill of exchange 

 after it becomes due. The number of such days varies 

 n different countries. In some, as in France, they are 

 ibolished altogether. In England, three days are al- 

 owed, so that a bill at a month drawn on the first of one 

 month, will become due on the fourth of the next. 



Grand Jury. The jury to whom all bills of indict- 

 ment are referred in the first instance. It is the duty 

 3f this jury to interrogate the witnesses for the prosecu- 

 ;ion, and ascertain whether or not a prima facie case is 

 nade out against the prisoner ; if so, they find a true 

 bill, and he takes his trial ; if not, they ignore the bill, 

 and he is discharged. 



Grant. A mode of conveyance, formerly applicable 

 only to incorporeal hereditaments, reversions, etc. ; but 

 ts significance has been extended by a recent statute, 

 tnd it Is now the instrument most usually employed in 

 ;he conveyance of land. 



