8th century. In about 1150 the Knights Templar issued an early form of bank notes to departing pilgrims in exchange for a deposit of valuables at a local Templar preceptory in a European country, which could be cashed by the pilgrim concerned on arrival in the Holy land, by presenting the note to a Templar preceptory there. In the mid-13th century, the Ilkhanid rulers of Persia printed the "cha" or "chap" which was used as paper money for limited use for transactions between the court and the merchants for about three years before it collapsed. The collapse was caused by the court accepting the "cha" only at progressive discount. Later, such documents were used for money transfer by Middle Eastern merchants, who had used the prototypes of bills of exchange ("suftadja" or "softa") from the 8th century to present. Such prototypes came to be used later by the Iberian and Italian merchants in the 12th century. In Italy in the 13–15th centuries, bills of exchange and promissory notes obtained their main features, while further phases of their development have been associated with France (16–18th centuries, where the endorsement had appeared) and Germany (19th century, formalization of Exchange Law). The first mention of the use of bills of exchange in English statutes dates from 1381, under Richard II; the statute mandates the use of such instruments in England, and prohibits the future export of gold and silver specie, in any form, to settle foreign commercial transactions. English exchange law was different than continental European law because of different legal systems; the English system was adopted later in the United States. In England, two of the main reasons why the use of negotiable instruments became so popular was: 1. Carrying large amounts of coins from one place to the other was deemed unsafe, so the usage of negotiable instruments was to prevent merchants from being robbed off their coins either on land or by sea. 2. During the 1300s, there was an increase in the use of "counterfeit English money", so the aim of the English Crown was to eradicate the exchanges that were made between genuine English coins and "foreign debased coinage". As such, statutes such as the Statute of Money of 1335 and 1379 were implemented to prevent the importation of money that was deemed as counterfeit, and also to prevent the exportation of valuable items like gold and silver