4.1 Having outlined the circumstances in which each type of letter of indemnity can be used in the shipping business, and the impact of such use on the different parties to the bill of lading, this chapter looks back historically to the first half of the twentieth century, focusing on the CMI Conferences of 1927 and 1955. At these conferences, the international shipping community gathered in Amsterdam and Madrid to consider, as one of its principal concerns; the increasing use of letters of indemnity to obtain clean bills of lading, and the proposed tools to ensure that such use did not conflict with the existing legal position regarding carriage of goods by sea and international trade, as well as the interests of insurers and banks financing international contracts of sale.