Re Panama, New Zealand, and Australian Royal Mail Co (1870) 5 Ch App 318 is generally accepted as the first decision under English law to recognise a floating charge.

Here not only could the ships be sailed out of the jurisdiction, the company could also "deal with them as they pleased", including ultimately selling them.

And I take the object and meaning of the debenture to be this, that the word "undertaking" necessarily infers that the company will go on, and that the debenture holder could not interfere until either the interest which was due was unpaid, or until the period had arrived for the payment of his principal, and that principal was unpaid.

In addition to stressing "in this particular case, and having regard to the state of this particular company", his Lordship went on to say "I do not refer to such things as sale or mortgages of property".

Although the case is cited as the genesis of the floating charge in English law, that phrase is not used in the judgment.