The payment order of antiquity and the Middle Ages: a legal history

Money, payment in money, and the order to pay money -- Money and monetary legal theory in antiquity and the Middle Ages -- Funds transfer in antiquity : instruments, institutions and mechanisms -- Deriving history from law : are cheques traceable to the Talmud? -- The payment order under Roman law -- The medieval Hawale : the legal nature of the Suftaj and other Islamic payment instruments -- Funds transfer under Talmudic law : orthodoxy and adaptation -- Payment orders in medieval continental Europe : book transfers and bills of exchange -- Payment orders under English common law : the bailment of money and the "reception" of the bill of exchange -- Evolution and transformation : the birth of the modern payment system in post-medieval England -- Turning the wheels of post-medieval change : paper circulation and negotiatbility under English law -- Staying on course : the footprint of ancient and medieval doctrine and practice on modern payment laws -- Epilogue : From barter to electronic funds transfers and the role of law.;Examining the legal history of the order to pay money initiating a funds transfer, the author tracks basic principles of modern law to those that governed the payment order of Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Exploring the legal nature of the payment order and its underpinning in light of contemporary institutions and payment mechanisms, the book traces the evolution of money, payment mechanisms and the law that governs them, from developments in Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece, Rome, and Greco-Roman Egypt, through medieval Europe and post-medieval England. Doctrine is examined in Jewish, Is.