840 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



V. Mason involved two problems : stoppage in transitu in case of 

 the insolvency of the original consignee, and the validity of bills 

 indorsed in blank. The complexity of the case, its prominence, 

 and long judicial history made it the controlling case on the 

 legal doctrines involved. It may be regarded as practically 

 completing the legal doctrine of negotiability. 



The instruments of title which grew out of the warehousing 

 system are closely analogous to the bill of lading, but the eco- 

 nomic and legal history is absolutely distinct. These warrants, 

 or warehouse receipts, arose much later than the bill of lading, 

 and despite their economic significance, they have not yet ac- 

 quired a legal standing comparable to the bill of lading. Further- 

 more, the law of the different countries is quite distinct. There 

 was apparently a parallel growth of such instruments in Holland, 

 England, and France. In France and England the forms of 

 the instrument were different ; in Holland the tendencies were 

 at the outset essentially similar to the English tendencies, but 

 the movement seems to have lost its force in the latter part 

 of the eighteenth century, so that the history of the instrument 

 in Holland was without notable consequences. The actual his- 

 tory of the warrant is still hopelessly obscure, and the dispro- 

 portionate emphasis placed upon the English system and its 

 history has tended to create additional misapprehensions in a 

 subject already fertile in difficulties. Hecht declares that the 

 economic importance of the warrant and its legal development 

 were " a product of English trade and customary mercantile 

 law"; but he does not support his contention, and the history 

 of the warrant in France and in Holland would seem to lead to 

 different historical conclusions. England may have been quicker 

 to adopt a new device with beneficial results to her commerce, or 

 the greater volume of her trade may have given a greater signifi- 

 cance to a commercial system whose technical details were well 

 understood in both France and Holland. It is not very satisfac- 

 tory to ascribe the increase in English trade to the development 

 of the warrant system. The general decline of trade in both 

 France and Holland toward the close of the eighteenth century 



