Abstract
Today, insurance is a part of everyday life, but this was not always the case. As an institution, insurance has only existed since the late medieval period, when marine insurance was first developed. Marine insurance policies were obtained for cargo and ships to mitigate the risk of damage. Thus, marine insurance is the mother of all other types of insurance. To look for its origins in the past is an obvious task, yet it has not been undertaken for the insurance industry of Hamburg. For non-economic historians, the subject might at first appear to be a niche topic. However, the relevance of insurance goes far beyond mere numbers. Indeed, it can now be stated that ‘marine insurance brought the idea of insurance into the world’ (2). In particular, the ‘Atlantic stage of European economic development’, when the world was striving towards a ‘world economy in-the-making’, would be inconceivable without insurance. 1 Risk-taking, risk-sharing and risk evaluation were at the centre of wholesale merchants’ businesses worldwide. Insuring one's own ships was a cornerstone of a merchant's career. Ultimately, insurance was the artery of international shipping and trade flows.
With his comprehensive book on marine insurance in Hamburg, Markus A. Denzel presents pioneering work on the development of insurance in this city. As an important contribution to an international upswing in insurance research in recent years, the book chooses to focus on Hamburg, but it also seeks to offer broader insights. The case of Hamburg, as a centre of international trade and finance linking the Atlantic with the Baltic and the European interior, is ‘ideal for discussing core aspects of marine insurance as an economic institution’ (2). Thus, work on Hamburg's marine insurance has been long overdue.
Denzel's book will become the standard on this subject – as is already the case with his work on the cashless payment system. 2 Denzel is one of the most renowned economic historians in Germany. In his books, he succeeds in explaining complex issues and sometimes supposedly dry topics in a vivid and understandable way. His useful graphs and tables are an important aspect here (28, 52). To complete his triad on the three ‘decisive innovations brought forth by the Commercial Revolution’ (3), following his works on the cashless payment system and insurance, the only book missing is a handbook on doubly-entry bookkeeping.
Denzel's approach is qualitative, aiming towards a long-term perspective, but he also offers case studies of insurance rates relating to different regions. The book is based on a decade of research and an extensive database. ‘This basis for the data equally provides for a long-term and detailed analysis of the marine insurance premiums, which up to now has not been carried out’ (16–17). The line of argumentation and the structure of the book are straightforward. The book traces the history of marine insurance from its origins in Italy (20) through to the important codification of insurance law in the seventeenth century (44), which is followed by the book's main focus on Hamburg marine insurance (1736–1859) and explanations about Dutch–Hamburg rivalry (59), not least during the height of the naval wars in the eighteenth century. This was also the time when the legal foundation for marine insurance was laid in Hamburg (83), paving the way for the first joint-stock company, the Assekuranz-Compagnie für Seerisiko (87, 96). This is followed by a description of the history of marine insurance in Hamburg in the nineteenth century, when technical advances such as telegraphy (93), as well as the reorganization of marine insurance through new organizations (107), were decisive in Hamburg becoming ‘Germany's first location for insurance’ (268) and a crucial ‘marine insurance market in Europe’ (279). By this time, Hamburg was already ‘a port of global relevance’ (280). This section is followed by detailed case studies of regional insurance rates (119). The main sources used are the Hamburg price currents, the Preiscourant der Wahren in Partheyen (46, 80).
Are there any grounds for critique? I would call it more of an appeal pointing beyond this book. As Denzel rightly points out, insurance was made by merchants (6). However, these merchants sometimes disappear behind numbers and charts. This is not unusual for quantitative works. As a cultural historian in economic history, I would still like to see more qualitative case studies, not just related to shorter periods of time (as in Frank C. Spooner's Risks at Sea), but real microhistories, combining macro and micro perspectives. 3 Central to our view of economics, after all, are crucial questions: How was insurance traded by merchants and used in practice? How did practices change over time? How did negotiations go, especially when hardship struck? How effective was insurance? Exciting studies are available on insurance in Mediterranean trade. 4 Works presented in the international seminar series Risk and Uncertainty in the Premodern World will provide exciting additions. 5 Newly available source collections such as the Prize Papers in London with many merchant letters will open up further new perspectives. 6 As a standard work and a basis for all future work on the subject of insurance, we will without question keep Denzel's book close to hand.