The Ordenanzas de Bilbao of 1737

A merchant corporation wrote its own commercial law, the crown confirmed it, and the result was the most complete commercial code in Europe seventy years before the French one. Its court decided cases "la verdad sabida, y la buena fe guardada por estilo de Mercaderes" and refused to admit papers drawn by lawyers; its chapters cover general average and marine insurance; and one clause writes a separate, higher allowance for the trade to the Indies.