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A cheque (or check in American English) is a document〔See the negotiable cow—itself a fictional story—for discussions of cheques written on unusual surfaces.〕 that orders a bank to pay a specific amount of money from a person's account to the person in whose name the cheque has been issued. The person writing the cheque, the ''drawer'', has a transaction banking account (often called a current, cheque, chequing or checking account) where their money is held. The drawer writes the various details including the monetary amount, date, and a payee on the cheque, and signs it, ordering their bank, known as the ''drawee'', to pay that person or company the amount of money stated. Cheques are a type of bill of exchange and were developed as a way to make payments without the need to carry large amounts of money. Paper money evolved from promissory notes, another form of negotiable instrument similar to cheques in that they were originally a written order to pay the given amount to whomever had it in their possession (the "bearer"). Technically, a cheque is a negotiable instrument〔Although cheques are regulated in most countries as negotiable instruments, in many countries they are not actually negotiable, viz., the payee cannot endorse the cheque in favour of a third party. Payers could usually designate a cheque as being payable to a named payee only by "crossing" the cheque, thereby designating it as account payee only, but in an effort to combat financial crime, many countries have provided by a combination of law and regulation that all cheques should be treated as crossed, or account payee only, and are not negotiable.〕 instructing a financial institution to pay a specific amount of a specific currency from a specified transactional account held in the drawer's name with that institution. Both the drawer and payee may be natural persons or legal entities. Specifically, cheques are ''order instruments'', and are not in general payable simply to the bearer (as bearer instruments are) but must be paid to the payee. In some countries, such as the US, the payee may endorse the cheque, allowing them to specify a third party to whom it should be paid. Although forms of cheques have been in use since ancient times and at least since the 9th century, it was during the 20th century that cheques became a highly popular non-cash method for making payments and the usage of cheques peaked. By the second half of the 20th century, as cheque processing became automated, billions of cheques were issued annually; these volumes peaked in or around the early 1990s. Since then cheque usage has fallen, being partly replaced by electronic payment systems. In an increasing number of countries cheques have either become a marginal payment system or have been completely phased out. == Spelling and etymology == The spellings ''check'', ''checque'', and ''cheque'' were used interchangeably from the 17th century until the 20th century. However, since the 19th century, the spelling ''cheque'' (from the French word ''chèque'') has become standard for the financial instrument in the Commonwealth and Ireland, while ''check'' is used only for other meanings, thus distinguishing the two definitions in writing. In American English, the usual spelling for both is ''check''.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Cheque - Definition of cheque by Merriam-Webster )〕 Etymological dictionaries attribute the financial meaning to come from "a check against forgery," with the use of "check" to mean "control" stemming from a check in chess, a term which came into English through French, Latin, Arabic and ultimately from the Persian word "shah" or "king." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「cheque」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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