Ebook Commercial Law

This volume contains all questions set in the Commercial Law paper at the New York State semi-annual examinations for certified public accountants, from December 1896 (the date of the first examination held), to June 1902, with full answers and explanations in plain, and, as far as possible, non-technical language. It will be noticed that many answers given here are quite different to those which would have been correct at the time the earlier papers were set; this applies particularly to the Corporation Law and the United States Bankruptcy Law of 1898; the numerous modifications of the former in New York State, and the enactment of the latter having effected basic alterations of great import.

It would really seem now as though the old legal motto, "Stare decisis et non quieta movere" (To stand by decisions and not to disturb what has been settled) had been allowed to a considerable extent to fall into desuetude, so numerous are the apparently conflicting legal decisions rendered from day to day. The consequences have not been particularly happy.

It has been decided that where a broker hypothecates his customers' securities he may do so, "provided he keeps securities of a like description and amount under his own control." "Under his control" has been decided as "keeping in his own possession." The question would naturally arise, how is business done in Wall Street?