Money was also lent, under the name of pecunia trajectitia, on ships and their cargo among the Romans, and regulated by various legal provisions. But it ap pears that the money was merely lent on condition of being repaid if the ship made her voyage safe within a certain time, and that the creditor had no claim on the ship unless it was specifically pledged. The rate of interest was not limited by law, as in the case of other loans, for the lender ran the risk of losing all if the ship was wrecked ; but this extraordinary rate of interest was only due while the vessel was actually at sea. The interest of money lent on MAP adventures was called Usurte Maritime. (Dig. 22, tit. 2, Nautico Fcenere ;" Molloy, De Jure Maritima, lib. ii. c. 11; Parke On Insurance, chap. xxi.; Benecke's System des Asseceranz and Bodnserei wesens, bd. 4.) It has been already stated that Bot tomry, in its general sense, is the pledge of a ship as a security for money bor rowed for the purpose of a voyage,. It has been conjectured that the power of a master to pledge a ship in a foreign coun try led to the practice of an owner bot rowing money at home upon the like se curity. But Abbott, in his treatise ou Shipping, expresses a doubt on this mat ter, and adds that the Roman law says nothing of contracts of bottomry made by the master of a ship in that character, according to the practice which has slim. universally prevailed. Yet there are passages in the Digest' (20, tit. 4, s. 5, 6) which seem to imply that a master might make such a contract, for, as already ob served, the ground for giving the prefer ence to a subsequent over a prior lender is stated to be that the subsequent loan saves the prior lender's security ; and we must Accordingly suppose that money could be borrowed by the master when he found it necessary for the preservation of the ship or cargo.
The terms bottomry and respondentia are also applied to contracts for the repay ment of money lent merely on the hazard of a voyage—for instance, a sum of money lent to a merchant to be employed in trade, and to be repaid with extraordinary in terest if the voyage is safely performed. This is in fact the Usurte Maritime of the Romans. But the stet 7 Geo. I. c. 21,
§ 2, made null and void all contracts by any of his Majesty's subjects, or any per son in trust for them, for or upon the loan of money by way of bottomry on any ships in the service of foreigners, and bound or designed to trade in the East Indies or places beyond the Cape of Good Hope. Another statute, 19 Geo. II c. 37, enacted that all moneys lent on bottomry or respondentia on vessels bound to or from the East Indies shall be ex pressly lent only on the ship or on the merchandise ; that the lender shall have the benefit of salvage; and that if 'the borrower has not an interest in the ship. or in the effects on board, to the value of the sum borrowed, he shall be responsible to the lender for so much of the principal as has not been laid out, with legal in terest and all other charges, though the ship and merchandise be totally lost. With the exception of the cases provided for by these two statutes, money may still be lent on the hazard of a voyage. Bottomry is sometimes treated as a part of the law of insurance, whereas it is quite a different thing. For further information, see Abbott, On shipping ; Parke, System of the Law of Marine Insurance.
It is observed in the Staats-Lexicon ' of Rotteck and Welcker, art. " Bodmerei," that Bodmerei " is a loan for a sea voyage, in which the ship becomes pledged. In this simplest form, at least, it is possible that this kind of transaction may have originated among the German nations. And so it is still viewed in the English law, even where the ship is not expressly pledged." This, however, is a misstatement of the English law. The same article, after some general remarks on Bottomry, which it is to be presumed apply to the German states, adds—" that, in fact, Bottomry now generally occurs only in cases when the master of a ship, during the voyage, requires money, and obtains a loan for the purpose of prose cutinf it, for which he has no better security to offer than the ship itself. This transaction also differs from the usual con tract of pledge in this: that the owner himself does not pledge the ship ; but the captain is considered as the agent of the owner, and as doing what is necessary for his interest under the circumstances."