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   A letter of credit is simply a request from one person to another to hold at the disposal of the bearer (i) (duly identified by means of his signature appended to the document) a certain sum or any sum within a fixed limit, which the payee may draw (2), when needs be, within the term appointed in the letter, and for which the drawee is to be reimbursed by the maker (3).
   A letter of credit, although an instrument of credit, is not vested by law with any of the privileges conferred upon bills, notes and cheques; consequently is not transferable by indorsement, nor can it be protested in case of non payment.
   Such are the leading documents used in the common operations of trade, which we. deemed it advisable briefly to describe here as an introduction to the following Commercial Dialogues, but which the reader will find largely described and illustrated in our other work «Lessons on the Laws and Customs of British Trade».
   (1) The bearer  I! portatore, cioè colui che è iti possesso del titolo.
   (2) to Draw  Trarre, qui usato nel senso Ai «ritirare», cioè, ritirare il denaro.
   (3) Vedi esempio di lettera di credito pag. 24.
   SPECIMENS
   of
   Commerciai documents
   1 prezzi segnati nei seguenti esempi di documenti commerciali devono considerarsi come assolutamente ipotetici.