EXCHANGE, com. law. This word has several significations.
2. - 1. Exchange is a negotiation1 by which one person transfers to another funds which he has in a certain place, either at a price agreed upon, or which is fixed2 by commercial usage. This transfer is made by means of an instrument which represents such funds, and is well known by the name of a bill of exchange.
3. - 2. The price which is paid in order to obtain such transfer, is also known among merchants by the name of exchange; as, exchange on England is five per cent. See 4 Wash. C. C. R. 307. Exchange on foreign money is to be calculated according to the usual rate at the time of trial. 5 S. & R. 48.
4. - 3. Barter3, or the transfer of goods and chattels4 for other goods and chattels, is also known by the name of exchange, though the term barter is more commonly used.
5. - 4. The French writers on commercial law, denominate the profit which arises from a maritime6 loan, exchange, when such profit is a per centage on the money lent, considering it in the light of money lent in one place to be returned in another, with a difference in amount in the sum borrowed and that paid, arising from the difference of time and place. Hall on Mar5. Loans, 56, n.; and the articles Interest; Maritime; Premium8.
6. - 5. By exchange is also meant, the place where merchants, captains of vessels9, exchange agents and brokers10, assemble to transact11 their business. Code de Comm. art. 71.
7. - 6. According to the Civil Code of Louisiana, art. 1758, exchange imports a reciprocal contract, by which. the parties enter into mutual12 agreement. 14 Pet. 133. Vide the articles. Bills of Exchange; Damages on Bills of Exchange and Reexchange. Also Civ. Code of Lo. art. 2630.
EXCHANGE conveyancing. An exchange is a mutual grant of equal interests in land, the one in consideration of the other. 2 Bl. Com. 323; Litt. s. 62; Touchs. 289; Watk. Prin. Con7. It is said that exchange, in the United States, does not differ from bargain and sale. 2 Bouv. Inst. n. 2055.
2. There are five circumstances necessary to an exchange. 1. That the estates given be equal. 2. That the word escambium or exchange be used, which cannot be supplied by any other word, or described by circumlocution13. 3. That there be an execution by entry or claim in the life of the parties. 4. That if it be of things which lie in grant, it be by deed. 5. That if the lands lie in several counties, it be by deed indented14; or if the thing lie in grant, though they be in one county. In practice this mode of conveyancing is nearly obsolete15. Vide Cruise, Dig. tit. 32 Perk16. ch. 4 10 Vin. Ab. 125; Com. Dig. h. t.; Nels. Ab. h. t.; Co. Litt. 51; Hardin s R. 593 1 N. H. Rep. 65 3 Har. & John. 361; 1 Rolle s Ab. 813 .3 Wils. R. 489. Vide Watk. Prin. Con. b. 2, c. 5; Horsman, 362 and 3 Wood, 243, for forms.
