Bill of exchange
From ACT Wiki
(BE).
Bills of exchange are widely used to finance trade and, when discounted with a financial institution, to obtain credit.
The formal legal definition of a bill of exchange is as follows:
An unconditional order in writing addressed by one person to another, signed by the person giving it, requiring the person to whom it is addressed to pay on demand or at a fixed or determinable future time a certain sum in money to order or to bearer.
Expressing this in less formal language, it is a written order from one party (the drawer) to another (the drawee) to pay a specified sum on demand or on a specified date to the drawer or to a third party specified by the drawer.