When bills were drawn to be paid at one of these appointed times at Lyons, which had not then begun, the drawer said “pay this my first of Exchange, &c., in the next Epiphany (or other) payment;” but if the payment had already begun, the bill had to be drawn payable “in this current or present payment of Epiphany” (or other term). The bills so drawn were to be accepted in the first six days of the payment they were made payable in; and the person on whom they were drawn was not obliged to declare whether he would or not accept until the sixth day. But after that day the bearer might protest them for non-acceptance, though he might detain them during the whole time of that “payment,” to see whether any one offered to discharge them. The protest, however, was immediately forwarded to the remitters; and if any one paid a bill in the time of the payment before the sixth day (or that being a feast day, the day following) it was at his own risk. The bearers of bills not satisfied by the last day of any “payment” were to protest them on the third day after the payment finished, otherwise they lost their right as against the drawers; but if this were done in form, and in the time prescribed, the holder might afterwards refuse payment from any one that offered it, and take his reimbursement upon the drawer, alike for principal and charges. And the said holders of bills were obliged to take their reimbursement on the drawers or indorsers in a time limited, viz., for all bills drawn from any part of _France_, in two months; those which were from _Italy_, _Switzerland_, _Germany_, _Holland_, _Flanders_, and _England_, in three months; and those which were drawn from _Spain_, _Portugal_, _Poland_, _Sweden_, and _Denmark_, in six months, to be counted from the date of the protest; or in default thereof they lost their rights against the drawers and indorsers. See _Besançon_. The general reader must pardon these details, which are of commercial significance. It was customary at an early period to make the bills drawn from Amsterdam and elsewhere on the “payment” of Lyons, in “golden crowns of the sun;” but when this specie became decried in France, the usage of exchange came to be to draw for the payment of Lyons (as was practised in France generally), viz., in crowns of sixty sous, equal to the present English half-crown. These practices may be compared with the usages of Nuremburg, Frankfort, and Leipzig fairs. The franchises of the fairs of Lyons in the early half of the last century had this special feature: that all goods intended for foreign countries, sent out of this city during the fifteen days of either fair, paid no customs outwards, provided the bales and parcels were marked with the city arms, and had certificates of franchise properly made out. To enjoy this privilege the merchandise had to be sent out of the kingdom before the first day of the following fair, unless special permission for delay had been obtained.