Maritime averages and the complexity of risk management in sixteenth-century Antwerp

Gijs Dreijer

doi:10.18352/tseg.1101

Abstract

This article aims to explain the hitherto unexplored role of General Average and other forms of maritime averages in risk management in sixteenth-century Antwerp. Whereas most scholarly attention has focused on insurance, this article makes the case that maritime averages also were an important tool to manage risk. The article highlights four major developments: first, concrete causes were incorporated under the General Average principle to cover uninsurable expenses and protection costs; second, General Average payments could be recovered via insurance; third, individual merchants sought to assess risk more precisely, developing new varieties of maritime averages themselves; and fourth, the protective foreign merchant guilds developed compulsory contributions based on General Average. The article also adds to related discussions on mercantile conflict resolution and commercial law.

Highlights

In 1575, a Spanish ship sailing from Spain to Antwerp encountered a storm and jettisoned some sacks wool off the coast of Dover, England.[2]
The article highlights four major developments: first, concrete causes were incorporated under the General Average principle to cover uninsurable expenses and protection costs; second, General Average payments could be recovered via insurance; third, individual merchants sought to assess risk more precisely, developing new varieties of maritime averages themselves; and fourth, the protective foreign merchant guilds developed compulsory contributions based on General Average
This article has argued that insurance was only one of the several tools of risk management in sixteenth-century Antwerp, and that General Average played an important role

Summary

Introduction

In 1575, a Spanish ship sailing from Spain to Antwerp encountered a storm and jettisoned some sacks wool off the coast of Dover, England.[2]. As Sheilagh Ogilvie has noted, institutions (the structures of rules and norms governing economic transactions) often performed multiple functions at the same time and were often organized by certain powerful groups, such as foreign merchant guilds (so-called nationes), influencing distributional effects between and within groups.[16] In Antwerp and its Flemish counterpart Bruges, Southern European nationes kept strict control over the distribution of risk and developed several varieties of maritime averages to cover different kinds of risk This was no surprise since the Iberian nationes possessed civil jurisdiction over General Average regarding their own members, a privilege which they defended.

13 A ‘historical’ defence of General Average can be found in

17 On nationes in Bruges and Antwerp see

Findings

Conclusion