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- Title
THE EARLIEST INSURANCE CONTRACT--A NEW DISCOVERY.
- Authors
Nelli, Humbert O.
- Abstract
On a recent research trip to Genoa, Italy the writer learned of the discovery of a marine policy dated February 13, 1343. This antedates by four and a half years the policy of October 23, 1347 which for over a half century has been generally accepted as the oldest recorded true insurance contract. These two contracts although worded fictitiously are significant in that they mark the first known break from the Mutuum Nauticum or marine loan. The marine loans which had been adequate in ancient and early medieval times could not fill the needs of the ‘sedentary merchants’ during the ‘Commercial Revolution.’ The fictitious wording was due to the need to cloak these contracts with the formulas and phraseology of Roman Law because insurance contracts per se had no legal existence or standing during this period. The clerical usury law and prohibitions further complicated the work of the notaries and lawyers in devising ways in which insurance transactions (and premium payments) could be carried out and recorded.
- Subjects
GENOA (Italy); ITALY; MARINE insurance policies; MARINE insurance; MARINES; INSURANCE law; USURY laws
- Publication
Journal of Risk & Insurance, 1972, Vol 39, Issue 2, p215
- ISSN
0022-4367
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/251881