The term “sender” originally referred to the party that delivered goods for transport to another location. Today, it is used in formal contracts of carriage and in consignment shops, where a seller delivers goods to be sold at a discount, with payment to the sender after the sale. Legal agreements and insurance coverage are still necessary for long-distance selling.
The meaning of “sender” has changed over the years. Originally a term used in shipping and defined by admiralty law, a shipper was the party that originated a shipment &emdash; that is, delivered, usually to a ship, for transport to another location. The consignee of the goods in the remote location was the consignee. Today, these parties would be a shipper and a consignee, although the original terms can still be found in some formal contracts of carriage.
The need for the distinction is clear. In a face-to-face sale, there is no appreciable time gap between properties. That is, as soon as payment is made, the seller delivers the goods to the buyer, who then takes possession of them. With long-distance selling, however, especially in pre-industrial circumstances, long-distance selling of goods was a significant component of the economy. Yet there was a significant period of time between the goods leaving the seller’s possession and the buyer’s possession, during which anything could happen. The sender would deliver the goods to a carrier, who would transport them to a distant location for delivery to the consignee, who would usually pay the sender for the goods, and the sender would then make payment to the sender.
Each shipment of goods, therefore, was accompanied by a legal agreement identifying them and the parties, the relationship of the parties to each other and to the goods, terms and conditions of payment. Shippers usually retained ownership of the goods until delivery to the consignees and arranged insurance coverage in case the goods did not reach their destination as expected.
There is still a lag between the delivery of the goods to a carrier and their delivery to the consignee, making it necessary to maintain the distinction between the parties. Unlike the days when transatlantic communications took as long as transatlantic shipping, however, payment upon receipt can usually be made instantaneously through the use of letters of credit.
In contemporary times, especially in the United States, a shipper is a person who delivers goods &emdash; usually second hand &emdash; to another party for sale, usually at a significant discount from the original sale price. The sender is only paid after the sale has been made, at an agreed percentage of the sale price or a lump sum. Goods are generally allowed to remain on display for three to six months free of charge, after which the consignor must either remove them or transfer ownership to the seller. The business environment within which this occurs is usually called a consignment shop, and the arrangement itself is commonly called a consignment sale.
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