The Pawnbrokers', Factors', and Merchants' Guide to the Law of Loans and Pledges

FACTORS', AND MERCHANTS'

GUIDE

TO THE

LAW OF LOANS AND PLEDGES:

WITH THE

Statutes and a Digest of Cases

ON RIGHTS AND LIABILITIES, CIVIL AND CRIMINAL, AS TO LOANS AND PLEDGES OF GOODS, DEBENTURES, MERCANTILE, AND OTHER SECURITIES.

By H. C. FOLKARD, Esq.,

OF LINCOLN'S INN, BARRISTER-AT-LAW, AUTHOR OF THE LAW OF
SLANDER AND LIBEL," ETC.

BIBLIOTHECA

WITH ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS TO 1876.

BODLEIANA

LONDON:

CROSBY LOCKWOOD & CO.,

7, STATIONERS' HALL COURT, LUDGATE HILL, E.C.

LONDON:

BRADBURY, AGNEW, & CO., PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.

PREFACE.

THAT important branch of the law relating to loans of money on the security of Pledges or Pawns of Goods and Chattels, and of Debentures, Scrip, Bills of Lading, and other securities, has, of late years, been brought more prominently and frequently before the courts of law than formerly; probably in consequence of the broader basis of commercial pursuits, the extended enterprise of the mercantile community, and the facilities for raising money, afforded by the Factors' Acts. But, from whatever cause, it is an indisputable fact, that the last few years have furnished some of the most important mercantile cases, involving the largest interests, and most abstruse questions of law, that have ever arisen on this comparatively small but scientific branch of English jurisprudence. Such would alone be a sufficient excuse for a treatise on the subject; but the Legislature has afforded the author a further reason, and greater encouragement towards the completion of his labours upon the present treatise, by the Pawnbrokers' Consolidated Statute which came into operation on the first of January of the present year; whereby most of the existing laws affecting the business of pawnbroking are repealed, and some of them re-enacted, with considerable and important amendments in one comprehensive statute, embracing the whole law upon that branch of the subject.

The opportunity for a new treatise is, therefore, twofold: and the only modern work on the subject is Mr. Francis Turner's learned and interesting book on "The Contract of Pawn," published in the year 1866.

As the Pawnbrokers' Consolidated Statute only affects loans by pawnbrokers of sums not exceeding 10%., and as a considerable part of the business of some pawnbrokers and money-lenders involves transactions far beyond that limit, it is obvious that a work of this kind, even in the hands of pawnbrokers, would be incomplete unless it embodied the whole of the general law of Pawns and Pledges; including, also, that important branch of mercantile law relating to pledges by factors and agents intrusted with the goods of their principals for sale.

The object of the author of the present work has therefore been, to place before his readers a carefully collated digest of the law upon the subjects above mentioned; including that of the common law rights and liabilities between pawners and pawnees; together with the statute law relating respectively to factors and pawnbrokers, and the cases decided thereon. The work has been prepared after a careful consideration of the statutes, diligent research, and study of all the old as well as modern authorities bearing upon the various branches of the law above referred to.

The author desires to add, that copies of this work are also published for the use of members of the profession of the law, under the following title : "The Law of Loans and Pledges, including the Factors' Acts, the Pawnbrokers' Consolidated and other Statutes, and a Digest of Cases on Rights and Liabilities, Civil and Criminal, as to Loans and Pledges of Goods, Debentures, Mercantile, and other Securities," but without any other alteration whatever.