commercial transaction

commercial transaction, in law, the core of the legal rules governing business dealings. The most common types of commercial transactions, involving such specialized areas of the law and legal instruments as sale of goods and documents of title, are discussed below. Despite variations of detail, all commercial transactions have one thing in common: they serve to transmit economic values such as materials, products, and services from those who want to exchange them for another value, usually money, to those who need them and are willing to pay a countervalue. It is the purpose of the relevant legal rules to regulate this exchange of values, to spell out the rights and obligations of each party, and to offer remedies if one of the parties breaches its obligations or cannot perform them for some reason.

The law of commercial transactions thus covers a wide range of business activities. It does not, however, govern such essentially noncommercial relationships as those involved in succession and family law. Historically, land was of such prime importance that it was not subject to frequent disposition and therefore was also excluded from the category of commercial transactions.

In some countries the term commercial transactions is merely descriptive. In Anglo-American law especially, it is merely a collective name for those rules that relate to business dealings. The term itself has no legal consequences. It serves only as a convenient and illustrative shelter under which certain legal rules may be assembled.

Many countries, however, have established a technical concept of commercial transactions with precise definitions and important legal consequences. This is most often the case in the civil-law countries. In these countries the term commercial transactions thus has more than a merely descriptive function. It designates in part those rules that are peculiar to commercial transactions. In France, for example, bankruptcy is open only to individuals who are merchants and to business organizations, and there are special rules applying to commercial cases. In Germany, similarly, the general rules on consumer sales are in part superseded by special rules on commercial sales. A commercial transaction thus results in a number of specific legal consequences that differ from those of ordinary consumer transactions. Such a special commercial regime exists usually because it is thought that the ordinary citizen should not be exposed to the rigours of commercial rules that presuppose a knowledgeable, versatile individual who does not need as much protection against the legal risks and consequences of his dealings.

In those countries in which specific legal consequences attach to commercial transactions, it is necessary to develop a precise definition of what constitutes a commercial transaction. Although such definitions are more or less closely related, they are peculiar to each individual country. The majority of them, found generally at the beginning of a special “commercial code,” combine two elements: definitions of a “merchant” and of a “commercial transaction.” In certain countries—Germany, for example—the emphasis is on the definition of the merchant; in others, such as France, the emphasis is on that of the commercial transaction (acte de commerce). This latter criterion, the so-called objective test, was adopted in the 19th century for ideological reasons, the French wanting to avoid any repetition of the pre-Revolutionary differentiation of legal rules according to the social condition of persons. However, whatever the test, the results are quite similar, because the gist of the various definitions is that a transaction is “commercial” if it is concluded by a merchant in the exercise of his profession.

Historical development

Only a few traces of rules on commercial transactions in antiquity have survived. The most notable is a rule developed by the seafaring Phoenicians and named after the island of Rhodes in the eastern Mediterranean. The “Rhodian Law” provided that losses incurred by a sea captain as a result of trying to save ship and cargo from peril must be shared proportionately by all owners of cargo and by the shipowner. If, for example, one merchant’s cargo was thrown overboard in order to save the ship from sinking, the loss would be shared among the shipowner and all the other merchants with cargoes aboard. This rule applied in the entire Mediterranean and is today known in the maritime law of all nations as general average.

Another important rule, also of maritime character, arose in connection with the maritime loan that developed in Athens. A capitalist would lend money for a marine trading expedition. The loan would be secured by ship and cargo, but repayment of the capital and payment of interest were conditional on the ship’s safe return. The interest rate of 24–36 percent, considerably beyond normal rates, reflected the highly speculative risks involved. This transaction later developed into marine insurance.

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Much more is known of the commercial law of the Romans. It was in Rome that for the first time a separation developed between the ordinary civil law and special rules for foreign (that is, primarily trade) relations. Since the civil law applied only to Roman citizens, trade and other relations with and among noncitizens were subject to a separate set of rules—the jus gentium, or law of nations. The latter exhibited two traits that have become characteristic of the law of commercial transactions: it was more liberal than the strict rules of the civil law, and it was applied uniformly in various parts of the world.

As far as specific rules are concerned, the Romans received and preserved the two institutions of the general average and the maritime loan that had been developed earlier. They added two other rules of maritime law: the liability of the shipowner for contracts concluded by the ship’s master (an early recognition of an agency relationship that was later generalized) and the liability of the ship’s master for damage to or loss of the passengers’ luggage and equipment. Innkeepers were charged with the same liability. Banking transactions and bookkeeping were well developed, and some prohibitory rules were enacted against capitalist excesses. Thus, the legal interest rate was lowered. In the post-Classical period an attempt at achieving a “just price” was made by introducing a rule that a sale could be annulled by the seller if the price paid to him was less than 50 percent of the value of the goods sold.

In the Middle Ages the Christian church attempted to enforce certain moral commands adverse to commercial transactions. The taking of interest for loans of money was considered income without true work and therefore sinful and prohibited. There was also an attempt to generalize the idea of a just price. Although both rules, and especially the former, influenced the law and the economy for centuries, neither of them finally prevailed in the secular world.

Another feature of the medieval period was the development of a separate commercial law—the law merchant. Like the jus gentium of early Roman days, the law merchant was different from the existing ordinary rules that varied from place to place. The need for certainty and uniformity in the provisions governing trade motivated the growth of one set of rules for commercial transactions, valid everywhere in Europe. These rules were disseminated and applied in special courts conducted at the numerous international fairs held in various countries of Europe and attended by local and foreign merchants. The main sources of the law merchant were the customs of the most developed commercial communities of the time—the northern Italian cities. Later, in the 13th and 14th centuries, Italian, French, and Spanish cities made the first attempts at codifying certain branches of commercial law.

The medieval period saw the development of company and banking law. The compagnia and the comenda, forerunners of the partnership and limited partnership, were in frequent use. The Italians created a sophisticated system of bills of exchange used partly for the transfer and exchange of money, partly (by means of endorsement) for payment, and partly (by discounting) for credit purposes. They also invented bankruptcy as a method for dealing equally with an insolvent merchant’s creditors.

In the period following the medieval era, but before the French Revolution, the law of commercial transactions lost its universal character. The birth of pronouncedly national states in Europe provoked a “nationalization” of the law. In 1673 and 1681 the French king Louis XIV enacted ordinances on land and maritime commerce. These were precursors of the French Commercial Code of 1807, which set the pattern for national codification of the law of commercial transactions in the Latin countries of Europe and America. In England the chief justice Lord Mansfield began from about 1756 to blend the law merchant into the common law. Only maritime law, although nationally codified, preserved some of its universal traits.

Of great consequence for the later development of commercial law was the foundation of colonial companies, usually through royal charter, for the exploitation and administration of the colonies of the European countries. The first, the Dutch East India Company, was chartered in 1602. Only such companies were able to attract the immense amounts of capital that were needed. The liability of each member was limited to his contribution, which was represented by share certificates that were transferable. Limited liability of shareholders and negotiability of shares were in fact fundamental to the operation of these companies. They were adopted and refined later into the most important vehicle of modern capitalism—the corporation.