Editing Cheque (section)

=== Early years ===

There is early evidence of using bill of exchange. In India, during the [[Maurya Empire]] (from 321 to 185 BC), a commercial instrument called the adesha was in use, which was an order on a banker desiring him to pay the money of the note to a third person.<ref>{{Cite web |date=12 December 1998 |title=Publications |url=https://m.rbi.org.in/Scripts/PublicationsView.aspx?id=155 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190120043055/https://m.rbi.org.in/Scripts/PublicationsView.aspx?id=155 |archive-date=20 January 2019 |access-date=17 May 2022 |publisher=Reserve Bank of India}}</ref>

The ancient Romans are believed to have used an early form of cheque known as ''praescriptiones'' in the 1st century BC.<ref name="Durant">{{cite book|last=Durant|first=Will|title=Caesar and Christ : a history of Roman civilization and of Christianity from their beginnings to A.D. 325|series=The story of civilization|volume=3|year=1944|publisher=Simon & Schuster|location=New York|page=749}}</ref>{{ISBN missing|date=May 2022}}

Beginning in the third century AD, banks in [[Sassanid Empire|Persian]] territory began to issue letters of credit.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Safari |first1=Meysam |year=2013 |title=Contractual structures and payoff patterns of Sukūk securities |url=http://e-journal.uum.edu.my/index.php/ijbf/article/download/8475/1420 |format=PDF |journal=International Journal of Banking and Finance |volume=10 |issue=2 |doi=10.32890/ijbf2013.10.2.8475 |ssrn=2386365 |s2cid=155043129 |quote=During the 3rd century AD, financial firms in Persia (currently known as Iran) and other territories in the Persian Sassanid Dynasty issued letters of credit known as "chak"|doi-access=free }}</ref> These letters were termed ''čak'', meaning "document" or "contract".<ref>Ilya Yakubovich. (2012). Journal of the American Oriental Society, 132(1), 116. {{doi|10.7817/jameroriesoci.132.1.0116}}</ref> The ''čak'' became the ''sakk'' later used by traders in the [[Abbasid Caliphate]] and other Arab-ruled lands.<ref name="glubb">{{cite book |title=A Short History of the Arab Peoples |first=John Bagot |last=Glubb |publisher=Dorset Press |year=1988 |page=105 |isbn=978-0-88029-226-9 |oclc=603697876}}</ref> Transporting a paper ''sakk'' was more secure than transporting money. In the ninth century, a merchant in one country could cash a ''sakk'' drawn on his bank in another country.<ref name="Islamic inventions 17">{{cite web |date=11 March 2006 |title=How Islamic inventors changed the world |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/how-islamic-inventors-changed-the-world-469452.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517055128/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/how-islamic-inventors-changed-the-world-469452.html |archive-date=17 May 2008 |access-date=29 July 2015 |work=The Independent}}</ref> The Persian poet, Ferdowsi, used the term "cheque" several times in his famous book, Shahnameh, when referring to the Sasanid dynasty.

[[Ibn Hawqal]], living in the 10th century, records the use of a cheque  written in [[Aoudaghost]] which was worth 42,000 [[dinars]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lhyX6Dp8pnMC&q=Ibn+Hawqal+cheques+at+Ghana+Empire&pg=PA14 |last1= Krätli |first1= Graziano |first2= Ghislaine |last2= Lydon |year=2011 |title= The Trans-Saharan Book Trade: Manuscript Culture, Arabic Literacy and Intellectual History in Muslim Africa |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |isbn= 9789004187429 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=Levtzion
| first= Nehemia|author-link=Nehemia Levtzion|title=Ibn-Hawqal, the Cheque, and Awdaghost| journal=[[The Journal of African History]]|volume=9|issue=2 |pages=223–333| year=1968|doi=10.1017/S0021853700008847|jstor=179561|s2cid=162076182}}</ref> 

In the 13th century the ''bill of exchange'' was developed in [[Venice]] as a legal device to allow international trade without the need to carry large amounts of gold and silver. Their use subsequently spread to other European countries.

In the early 1500s, to protect large accumulations of cash, people in the [[Financial history of the Dutch Republic|Dutch Republic]] began depositing their money with "cashiers". These cashiers held the money for a fee. Competition drove cashiers to offer additional services including paying money to any person bearing a written order from a depositor to do so. They kept the note as proof of payment. This concept went on to spread to England and elsewhere.<ref>{{cite web |year=2003 |title=Guide to Checks and Check Fraud |url=https://www.wachovia.com/file/checks_and_check_fraud.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928041645/https://www.wachovia.com/file/checks_and_check_fraud.pdf |archive-date=28 September 2011 |publisher=[[Wachovia Bank]] |page=4}}</ref>