***** Moderator's Note *****
This is related to telecom in a way that might not be obvious: it's
> an indication that society has (or is about to) come full circle,
> and do the things necessary to *prevent* electronic commerce without
> authority of the person who owns the funds.
>
> The telegraph and (of course) the telephone, were the first
> technical advances to allow information to travel more quickly than
> the paperwork associated with it: before the telegraph, the postal
> system was the fastest way to get an order for goods from place to
> place(1), and also the only commonly available alternative to
> messengers - but the order would, by custom, be accompanied by some
> kind of financial instrument which could either be verified on sight
> at the destination, or used as evidence of good intent in banking > transactions.
>
> Electronic commerce - it's nothing new, by the way - created entire
> industries dedicated to managing the risks associated with providing
> goods and services without paper-based financial instruments
> changing hands. Codes, ciphers, and passwords - also nothing new -
> had to be improved and made easier to use so that average men could
> use them effectively to assure the identity and good intent of those
> whom they were dealing with. When there's no way to verify the bona
> fides of a person who initiates a commercial transaction - such as
> when a credit card number and expiration date is traded on a pirate
> bulletin board - then the added risks of fraud must be covered by
> insurance, or the added costs must be born by all law-abiding users. >
> The information superhighway carries crooks and crazies at the same
> speed as civilians, and now - at least in Europe - society is
> putting on the brakes.
Open charge accounts existed far back in history for vendors and buyers who knew each other or could vouch for the transaction in some other way - that's what Dun & Bradstreet started out doing for commercial firms.
The "financial instrument" that you mentioned was probably an Order Draft, which was sent to the recipient's bank with bank as the drawee, and the bank would release the order (a negotiable instrument subject to a written order) when the bank got their money and gave the bill of lading or other shipping document denoting ownership to the recipient so he could get his goods from the carrier or shipping company so they would release the goods to him. The bank then sent the money it collected to the originating bank for the benefit ot the shipper.
In the USA, and I believe in Australia, too, express companies came into existence in newly-developed places, using stagecoaches or other vehicles drawn by horses where railroads had not yet penetrated. They often would take shipments for considerable value consigned to some distant (or nearby) point COD (collect-on delivery).
Later wire transfers were made by commercial telegrams from one bank to another.
The "codes" you mentioned were used by many industries, some of whom had voluminous books distributed to their members, covering about every commercial possibility that might some up. Some of them were for the purpose of hiding the content of messages, but a far greater use was to save on telegraph or cable tolls, charged by the word.
Wes Leatherock snipped-for-privacy@aol.com snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com