The bill of exchange was drawn in general in the form of three duplicates, one of which, the first, second, or third, apparently without discrimination, was very often entered on record in the county in which the bill itself was given. It was to be met twenty, thirty, or forty days or even longer after presentation to the drawee. It could be transferred, being made payable to order.[1] As the risk of protest was always present, it is not surprising to find that precautions were taken to ensure the payment of the amounts represented in bills of exchange by requiring the delivery of collateral security. The local government, when it first imposed a duty of two shillings on each hogshead exported, was careful to provide that if paid for in bills of exchange, these bills should be fully protected. In private transactions, the security most frequently consisted of a bond in which the person delivering the bill bound himself to pay double the amount set down in it in the event that the document was protested. In some cases, the security was a recorded assignment of the servants, slaves, cattle, and tobacco in the possession of the drawer, and this was to be made final if the bill was dishonored.[2]
There is much evidence to show that the bills of exchange were in many instances protested. The cargo on which they were based sometimes miscarried or after its arrival in England remained unsalable, or perhaps the consignee proved bankrupt or was unscrupulous in his business life. The return of such documents occasioned such serious damage even in some cases in which they had been
- ↑ Records of York County, vol. 1671-1694, p. 152, Va. State Library; Records of Elizabeth City County, vol. 1684-1699, pp. 291, 337, Va. State Library. In one case, sixteen separate bills of exchange were recorded together in Records of Lancaster County, original vol. 1666-1682, pp. 147. This was in 1671.
- ↑ An instance of security in the form of a bond will be found in Records of Rappahannock County, vol. 1668-1672, p. 54.
