Antwerp 1490–1590: Insurance and Speculation

Marketing and Pricing Risk in Marine Insurance in Sixteenth-Century Antwerp

“…In other centres such as Burgos, Venice, (De ruysscher 2016;Rossi 2015). In that sense, Antwerp was much more open to all types of merchants.…”

“…From about 1520 Antwerp-based merchants started to use premium marine insurance, which displaced traditional risk-transfer practices such as charter contracts. At least by the 1550s Antwerp had become a leading insurance centre (De ruysscher 2016).…”

“…First, while the insured amount is always mentioned, the insured asset—ship, equipment, and/or merchandise—is, in most cases, unclear. The insured amount could also be a combination of the equipped ship's value and that of the merchandise (Wastiels 1967, p. 58; De ruysscher, 2016, p. 83). Moreover, the law in 1562–1563 stipulated that only up to 90 percent of the value could be insured (if the insured value was less than £ 2,000 Fl.…”

“…For the transfer of the technique of marine insurance from Italian to Aragonese and Catalan merchants, see Cruselles Gómez (2006). 2 For a synthesis, see van Niekerk (1998) and La Torre (2000); for recent work on sixteenthcentury Antwerp, see De ruysscher (2009De ruysscher ( , 2016, De ruysscher and Puttevils (2015), and Stevens (2000); for recent work on sixteenth-century London, see Ibbetson (2008), Leonard (2013aLeonard ( , 2015, and Rossi (2015). 3 On Italy: Ceccarelli (2012), Doehaerd (1949), Giacchero (1984), Melis (1975), Nehlsen-von Stryk (1988), Stefani (1958), Tenenti (1959Tenenti ( , 1987Tenenti ( , 1991, Tenenti and Tenenti (1985); Barcelona and Burgos: Barkham (1980/1), Basas Fernández (1958, Casado Alonso (1992), Cruselles Gómez (2006), del Treppo (1957Treppo ( /8, 1972; Amsterdam, London, La Rochelle, and Cadiz: Baskes (2013), Clark (1978), Leonard (2013b), Spooner (1983).…”

“…Marine insurance had become established at Antwerp only a couple of decades before Henriquez's death; the practice having been introduced by Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian traders who had relocated from Bruges, an important center for commerce and marine insurance during the fifteenth century (De Groote 1975, 1976; De ruysscher 2016; Goris 1925; Verlinden 1948). Marine insurance in the form of a premium paid for the promise of an indemnity in the event of a specified loss originated in fourteenth-century Italy (Genoa and Palermo) and gradually spread to the rest of Italy, the Mediterranean and, in the wake of Italian merchants, to Northwestern Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries 1…”