5.1 This book covers documentary credits, but its title is “Bills of Lading and Bankers’ Documentary Credits”, not simply “Bankers’ Documentary Credits”. Without the bill of lading, and the development of its present day properties, neither the c.i.f. contract nor the bankers’ documentary credit could have developed. Today the bill of lading, for good reason, is being used less universally than once it was. Alternative forms of documentation do not necessarily perform all the same functions, and where they do not, it is important to appreciate what is being lost.