Definition
De chargement is a French-language legal term used in French maritime law meaning a bill of lading — the document issued by a carrier acknowledging receipt of cargo for shipment and setting out the terms under which goods are to be transported by sea. The term appears in the Ordonnance de la Marine (1681), the foundational French maritime code, which regulated the issuance and legal effect of such documents in commercial shipping.
A bill of lading (the English equivalent) serves three primary functions: it is a receipt for goods delivered to the carrier, evidence of the contract of carriage, and a document of title allowing the holder to claim the goods at the port of destination.
Note on the Burrill entry: The source text for this term contains what appears to be a corrupted or conflated entry. After defining de chargement as a bill of lading, Burrill's text pivots without explanation to describe a poll tax by which "every subject in the kingdom was assessed by the head or poll, according to his degree," with a cross-reference to Cowell and a note that a similar tribute was anciently called "poll-silver." This second passage does not belong to de chargement. It likely represents a typographical or editorial error in the Burrill text — probably a misplaced fragment from an adjacent entry. Researchers should treat the poll-tax language as extraneous and not as a secondary meaning of de chargement.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): No standard entry. The phrase is French and translates literally as "of unloading" or "of discharge" — chargement meaning loading or cargo, with the prefix de indicating origin or removal.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not entered. Webster's 1913 does not include this term.
Editorial note: The literal French meaning ("of unloading") points toward the document's function — a record associated with the loading and eventual discharge of cargo — but does not fully capture the legal instrument's role as a title document and contract of carriage. Researchers encountering the term in historical French maritime sources should not read it as a generic reference to unloading operations; it denotes a specific formal instrument with defined legal consequences.
Why It Matters in Research
This term surfaces almost exclusively in sources dealing with French maritime law and its reception into other civil law systems, particularly in the period governed by the Ordonnance de la Marine of 1681. Researchers working in early American maritime law, Louisiana law, or comparative commercial law may encounter de chargement in translated French sources, treatises citing the Ordonnance, or cases from Louisiana courts where French civil law terminology persisted well into the nineteenth century.
The principal research trap here is the Burrill entry itself. Because Burrill's text inexplicably grafts poll-tax language onto the definition, a researcher relying solely on Burrill without cross-checking primary sources could incorrectly associate de chargement with taxation or personal tribute. That second passage has no connection to bills of lading and should be disregarded.
For most common law research contexts, the operative term is bill of lading, not de chargement. This French form will not appear in English-language statutes or case reporters except as a passing reference in comparative or historical discussions. Its utility is as a finding aid — recognizing the term in a French-language source and understanding that it corresponds to the bill of lading concept, with all the attendant law of carriage, negotiability, and title transfer that concept carries.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the sole historical dictionary source available for this entry, and its treatment is both terse and textually compromised. Burrill correctly identifies de chargement as a bill of lading under French law and correctly cites the Ordonnance de la Marine, but the entry then collapses into unrelated material about a poll tax, apparently due to a printing or editorial error in the original volume. No independent corroboration for a poll-tax meaning of de chargement exists in French legal history; the Ordonnance de la Marine liv. 3, tit. 2 concerns maritime contracts, not taxation.
Broader historical dictionaries of French law, including Ferrière's Dictionnaire de Droit et de Pratique, treat the bill of lading concept under connaissement — the more common French maritime term. De chargement appears to have been an older or regional variant usage reflected in the Ordonnance's specific drafting. Researchers should be aware that connaissement, not de chargement, is the standard term in later French commercial law and in the French Commercial Code.
Jurisdictional Note
This term has no currency in modern common law jurisdictions. Its relevance is limited to historical research in French maritime law and in jurisdictions with French civil law heritage, principally Louisiana. In Louisiana, early territorial-period cases and documents may use French maritime terminology; modern Louisiana law follows the Uniform Commercial Code and federal maritime statutes, where bill of lading is the operative term.