History of insurance. Medieval era.

Medieval era

Sea loans or foenus nauticum were common before the traditional marine insurance in the medieval times, in which investor lend his money to a travelling merchant, and merchant will be liable to pay back if the ship returns safely, providing credit and sea insurance at the same time.

The rate of interest for sea loans was high to compensate higher risk involved. Hence, in sea loans merchants have to pay the interest charges to the lenders for bearing the sea risk rather than profit sharing, as it was the case in sedentary-travelling merchant relationship.

Therefore, due the usury involvement in the transaction, in 1236 the Pope Gregory IX condemned this practice in his decretal Naviganti (Roover, 1945, p. 175; See also Kingston, 2011). The commenda contracts were introduced when Pope Gregory IX condemned the sea loans because of usury. Capitalist provide funds to entrepreneur to carry out trade on partnership, sharing the profit but both sea and commercial risk belong to capitalist (Kingston, 2008).

In the fourteenth century, Italian merchants introduced cambium contracts, borrowers have to buy the bills of exchange from the lenders (merchants-bankers). Since the bills of change were payable in any event, mean they do not cover the sea risk at all.

To hedge the risk of sea trade, merchants invent the insurance loans that were very close to today’s marine insurance i.e. “ the insured or borrower remained on the land, 2) the goods insurance send unaccompanied, and the loan payable not upon the safe arrival of ship but upon the safe arrival of goods”.

Separate insurance contracts (i.e., insurance policies not bundled with loans or other kinds of contracts) were invented in Genoa in the 14th century, as were insurance pools backed by pledges of landed estates. The first known insurance contract dates from Genoa in 1347, and in the next century maritime insurance developed widely and premiums were intuitively varied with risks.

These new insurance contracts allowed insurance to be separated from investment, a separation of roles that first proved useful in marine insurance. The first printed book on insurance was the legal treatise On Insurance and Merchants' Bets by Pedro de Santarém (Santerna), written in 1488 and published in 1552.

History of insurance | Ancient world

Ancient world

Initially people used to sell goods in their own villages and gathering society. However, with the passage of time, they turned to nearby villages to sell. Furthermore, in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, the European traders used to travel to sell their goods across the globe and to hedge the risk of theft or fraud by the Capitan or crew also known as Risicum Gentium. However, they realized that selling this way, involves not only the risk of loss (i.e. damaged, theft or life of trader as well) but also they cannot cover the wider market. Therefore, the trend of hiring commissioned base agents across different markets emerged. The traders sent (export) their goods to the agents who on the behalf of traders sold them. Sending goods to the agents by road or sea involves different risks i.e. sea storms, pirate attack; goods may be damaged due to poor handling while loading and unloading, etc. Traders exploited different measures to…

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Types of compulsory insurance

Compulsory insurance

Types of compulsory insurance In Ukraine, the following types of compulsory insurance are carried out: health insurance; personal insurance of medical and pharmaceutical employees (except for those working in institutions and organizations financed from the State Budget of Ukraine) in case of infection with the human immunodeficiency virus during the performance of their official duties; personal insurance of departmental employees (except for those working in institutions and organizations financed from the State Budget of Ukraine) and rural fire brigades and members of voluntary fire brigades (teams); insurance of sportsmen…

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How and why are insurance classified?

The classification of insurance

The classification of insurance allows to establish differences and similarities of forms and types of insurance, to reduce them to a certain number of groups and thus facilitate their study and practical use. The classification of insurance divides the whole set of insurance relationships into interdependent links (in the sphere of activity, industry, sub-sector and types) that are in each other in a certain subordination, in such a way that each subsequent link of the classification is part of the previous one. It is also…

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