Die Hamburger Seeversicherung vom 17. bis zur Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts

Abstract

Abstract Hamburg’s marine insurance from the 17th to the middle of the 19th century In the eighteenth century, Hamburg emerged as the third-most important marine insurance market in North-West Europe, after Amsterdam and London, with an impact in the entire Baltic Sea area, but partially in ports along the Atlantic coast and in the Mediterranean as well. On the basis of selected examples this contribution outlines the long-term development of marine insurance rates and explains how and why it gradually became less and less expensive to insure ships and goods in maritime transport. At the same time, the paper examines the factors of pricing of the marine insurance rates, i. e. analyses the significance of different various risk factors. Finally, the importance of (marine) insurance as a central transaction cost of trade and (maritime) transport in pre-industrial times is made clear. It is explained, that the long-term minimalisation of the risks involved in the maritime traffic did start only after the Napoleonic Wars and the subjugation of the last pirates in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, which, however, occurred long before the introduction of steam shipping and other innovations in maritime transport and international communication.