Credit insurance and trade expansion in Britain, 1820–1980

Abstract

The idea of insuring companies against the non-payment of debt by their customers, at home and abroad, developed during the nineteenth century. However, the first insurance companies to write this type of business proved shortlived. Only from the 1880s did credit insurance become a significant business in Britain, and the main foundations of the modern industry were not laid until after the First World War. Government played a significant role in this development. The state-run Export Credits Guarantee Department was established in 1919 to insure British export trade, and the government had a hand in the foundation of Trade Indemnity, the principal private credit insurer, in 1918. C. E. Heath, a prominent member of Lloyd's, played a major role in stimulating the growth of credit insurance both in Britain and abroad in the inter-war period. After 1945, credit insurance became increasingly popular, especially to assist the export trade, and by the late 1960s more than one third of all British exports were b...