[483] Mémoires de l’Acad. des Sciences, ann. 1730, 1731, 1732. [484] Commerc. Litter. Norim. 1732, p. 73. [485] Ib. [486] Phil. Transact. 1730, ccccxvi. p. 441. [487] Ib. ccccxiv. p. 371. [488] Ib. cccclxi. p. 789, and cccclxiii. p. 796.--Commerc. Litter. Norimb. 1735, p. 353. [489] Institutiones Regni Vegetabil. In the part on Leaves. [490] Programma de Plantarum Structura. Lips. 1740, 4to, § 5, 6. [491] Dissertat. Phys. de Vegetabilibus, printed with Linnæi Orat. de Necessitate Peregrinat. intra Patriam. Lugd. B. 1743. [492] Die Nahrungs-Gefässe in den Blättern der Bäume. Nurnb. 1748. [493] Many editions of this book may be found mentioned in Halleri Bibl. Botan. i. p. 484; Böhmeri Bibl. Hist. Nat. iii. p. 679. [494] Haus- und Feld-Schule, i. 26. [495] Georgica Curiosa, i. p. 787. [496] Hausvater, vol. v. p. 662. [497] Versuch der Universal-vermehrung aller Bäume. Regensb. 1716, fol., or the edition by Brauser. Regensb. 1772. [498] Thummigii Meletemata. Brunsw. 1727, 8vo, p. 5. BILLS OF EXCHANGE. I shall not here repeat what has been collected by many learned men respecting the important history of this noble invention, but only lay before my readers an ordinance of the year 1394, concerning the acceptance of bills of exchange, and also two bills of the year 1404, as they may serve to illustrate further what has been before said on the subject by others. These documents are, indeed, more modern than those found by Raphael de Turre[499] in the writings of the jurist Baldus[500], which are dated March 9, 1328; but they are attended with such circumstances as sufficiently prove that the method of transacting business by bills of exchange was fully established so early as the fourteenth century; and that the present form and terms were even then used. For this important information I am indebted to Von Martens, who found it in a History, written in Spanish, of the maritime trade and other branches of commerce at Barcelona, taken entirely from the archives of that city, and accompanied with documents from the same source, which abound with matter highly interesting[501]. Among these is an ordinance issued by the city of Barcelona in the year 1394, that bills of exchange should be accepted within twenty-four hours after they were presented; and that the acceptance should be written on the back of the bill[502].