What kind of life insurance was in force in the sixteenth century?

In the sixteenth century many marine insurances appeared, they covered the life of sailors, captain’s utensils and their passengers, often of merchants, in the event of death or assault pirates, this related to the insurance of the ship and its cargo.

In France and other European countries in the seventeenth century many companies would become popular, for accepting money payments in exchange for lifetime rent, the amount of the pension rent was dependent on the living contributors.

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Did you know that life insurance functioned in the Middle Ages?

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In the Middle Ages specific pensions and endowment insurances were concluded similar to the ones in present days, the monastery receives wealth in exchange for lifetime rent.

Dowry insurance has the following structures: church has obtainable money by the means of donations and bequests off earthly possessions, thus pledging to the payment of pensions for life to the donors or their children but if you the person would die, everything would become the property of the church.

 

 

 

 

Life insurances in ancient Rome

In ancient Rome, from X-XI century the marine insurance was very popular, contracted by captains for the construction of new utensils and of merchants to purchase goods, it was above the interest rate of ordinary loans but the owner of the vessel would not be obligated to return the loan when he was attacked by pirates, kidnapped or if the ship would crash.

This type of loan has lost its importance in the thirteenth century as a result of issue of papal law prohibiting the taking of interest (usury), proof of the conclusion of such an agreement was signed by the one who would establish the policy, and the oldest documented insurance contract of this type comes from Genoa from 1347. In Rome mutual aid funeral allowances would be paid, often lifelong for former legionnaires.

In the Middle Ages, such characteristics were passed on to merchants and artisans to members of a specific guild to disburse the needy, and the sick, being a financial assistance during their life and after death would have assisted families in the cost of a burial.

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Egypt – a place where the first life insurances appeared

So here are a few words about the history and the beginnings of insurance. The first insurance appeared in ancient times in Egypt – stonemasons helped each other in covering the expensive funerals.

Already at the time of Hammurabi (about 2 thousand BC) there was a participant’s hearse agreement in the Middle East, where they jointly undertook to cover any damages incurred by each participant in such an agreement. The agreements were primarily damages incurred in animals. If one of the participants in the agreement lost an animal, the other members filed the appropriate amount of which was equivalent to this loss.

The same principle was a part of an agreement concluded between the Jewish owners of donkeys in Palestine, which proved that if the donkey would flee, die, or would be stolen or torn by wild animals, the loss will be compensated in nature.

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Life insurance over the centuries

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To start us off, let me put this straight – random events do not miss any of us, because none of us are completely lucky, and it will be probably only a matter of time before fate, will write away a script of your life, putting you through the problems of the loss of health, not to mention the life itsel .

If we knew these scenarios, if we knew when and what will happen to us, the existence of insurance companies would lose meaning. At the beginning I will describe the origins of insurance in the history of mankind, antiquity, the middle Ages, an approximation of the origins in England. The following sections will introduce you to the most popular types of life insurance in England, I will try to describe them in a simple way, not to make things more complicated than they already seem.

To be continued…