ABSTRACT
The bill of lading originated purely as a receipt for the goods shipped, a copy of which could be sent to advise the correspondent of the goods sent and the purpose to which they were to be put. If the earliest bills of lading did not perform a contractual function at all, given that their function was to act as a separate record of the goods shipped, they should usurp the role of the charterparty. The bill of lading was not usually conceived of as fulfilling a contractual function because each shipper would be a party to the charterparty made with the carrier. In modern shipping there are different types of bills of lading; it is important to note that there are different legal incidences for different bills. When the cargo had been loaded, a bill of lading was issued that contained liberty to call at intermediate ports, to proceed by any route directly or indirectly and to overcarry.
