1. Ancient History
Since the dawn of time, humans have sought to satisfy a fundamental need: safety .
The uncertainty of the future and the unpredictability of events have always generated anxiety and fear. For this reason, since ancient times, humans have sought to reduce or eliminate the sense of vulnerability, developing strategies to collectively address the risks of everyday life.
For centuries, the only true means of protection was the solidarity of one's social group. The family, tribe, and clan offered concrete support to members affected by damaging events such as the death of a loved one or of working animals, a bad harvest, a fire, a theft, or other calamities.
In these situations, mutual aid was not only desirable, but essential for survival.
At the same time, agreements began to emerge between individuals exposed to the same risks, who pledged to help one another in times of need. This is how the first forms of mutual assistance associations developed, based on the principle of cooperation and risk sharing.
During the Early Middle Ages, with the growth of cities and the development of guilds, political and religious associations also took shape that offered their members a form of economic and social protection in the event of illness, death, or poverty.
However, all these forms of mutual pension provision were still far from modern insurance schemes. These early experiences still lacked the contractual structure and the intervention of a third party—the company—that characterize insurance as we know it today.
A condition in which the outcome of a future event cannot be predicted with certainty. It is a fundamental component of the human experience and, historically, one of the main reasons why forms of collective protection such as insurance were developed. Uncertainty transforms risk into a social issue to be shared and managed.
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A condition in which the outcome of a future event cannot be predicted with certainty. It is a fundamental component of the human experience and, historically, one of the main reasons why forms of collective protection such as insurance were developed. Uncertainty transforms risk into a social issue to be shared and managed.
What is uncertainty?
A condition in which the outcome of a future event cannot be predicted with certainty. It is a fundamental component of the human experience and, historically, one of the main reasons why forms of collective protection such as insurance were developed. Uncertainty transforms risk into a social issue to be shared and managed.
What is uncertainty?
A condition in which the outcome of a future event cannot be predicted with certainty. It is a fundamental component of the human experience and, historically, one of the main reasons why forms of collective protection such as insurance were developed. Uncertainty transforms risk into a social issue to be shared and managed.
What is uncertainty?
A condition in which the outcome of a future event cannot be predicted with certainty. It is a fundamental component of the human experience and, historically, one of the main reasons why forms of collective protection such as insurance were developed. Uncertainty transforms risk into a social issue to be shared and managed.
What is uncertainty?
A condition in which the outcome of a future event cannot be predicted with certainty. It is a fundamental component of the human experience and, historically, one of the main reasons why forms of collective protection such as insurance were developed. Uncertainty transforms risk into a social issue to be shared and managed.
What is uncertainty?
A condition in which the outcome of a future event cannot be predicted with certainty. It is a fundamental component of the human experience and, historically, one of the main reasons why forms of collective protection such as insurance were developed. Uncertainty transforms risk into a social issue to be shared and managed.
What is uncertainty?
2. Marco Polo
Marco Polo was a famous medieval explorer and merchant , best known for his extraordinary journey along the Silk Road and for the book “Il Milione”, written during his imprisonment in Genoa between 1298 and 1299.
In this work, which became one of the most important texts of medieval geographical literature, Polo recounts in great detail his travels to the East, in the service of the Mongol Empire and in particular of its ruler Kublai Khan. It was not simply an individual adventure: his experience served as a bridge between distant worlds, between diverse cultures, and opened new trade routes and horizons of knowledge for Europe.
Marco Polo's contribution to the expansion of trade between East and West was fundamental. His tales inspired generations of merchants, navigators, and adventurers, contributing to a growing network of international trade, travel, and commerce. As these movements intensified, however, so did exposure to risk: storms, theft, shipwrecks, conflicts, disease, and unpredictable economic losses. Precisely in this dynamic and uncertain context, the need arose to develop tools to manage and share these risks.
Insurance, understood as an organized system of protection against losses, found its first forms during these centuries. It was also thanks to the expansion promoted by figures like Marco Polo that Europe began to structure concrete responses to commercial uncertainty , giving rise to one of the most enduring and influential inventions in economic history: the insurance contract.
A condition in which the outcome of a future event cannot be predicted with certainty. It is a fundamental component of the human experience and, historically, one of the main reasons why forms of collective protection such as insurance were developed. Uncertainty transforms risk into a social issue to be shared and managed.
SOURCE: Ken Brownlee, History of Insurance Adjusting, Part 2: The Middle Ages, www.propertycasualty360.com, 2014
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Insurance gave rise to fundamental inventions: the insurance contract, the concept of calculated risk, the premium, the policy, organized mutuality, actuarial statistics, and mutual funds. These tools revolutionized not only the economy but also the social management of uncertainty, giving rise to models of collective protection that are still relevant today.
What inventions originated from the history of insurance?
A condition in which the outcome of a future event cannot be predicted with certainty. It is a fundamental component of the human experience and, historically, one of the main reasons why forms of collective protection such as insurance were developed. Uncertainty transforms risk into a social issue to be shared and managed.
What is uncertainty?
3. Medieval merchants
During the Second World War, insurance policies faced an unprecedented test. Created to protect people and property from unforeseen events, they faced continuous and systematic destruction, transforming risk from an exception to an everyday occurrence. Bombings, fires, requisitions, and displacements also profoundly changed the perception of danger: insecurity was no longer distant or theoretical, but part of everyday life.
By the late 1930s, many companies had begun excluding so-called "war risks" from their coverage. This choice wasn't intended to amplify fear, but rather reflected a structural limitation of insurance in the face of systemic, unpredictable, and mass events. In several countries, the state intervened to fill this gap. In the United Kingdom, for example, public compensation systems for bomb damage were created, recognizing that protection needed to become a collective responsibility.
Even before the outbreak of the conflict, an episode demonstrated how insurance could be bent by political power: Kristallnacht, between November 9 and 10, 1938. In Germany and the territories controlled by the Nazi regime, synagogues, homes, and thousands of Jewish businesses were destroyed or burned. Many of these businesses were insured against fire and vandalism.
Under normal conditions, the policies would have represented a chance for recovery, a sign of continuity and confidence.
Instead, the opposite happened. The authorities decided that the compensation paid by insurance companies would go not to the Jewish owners, but to the state. Insurance was not the cause of the loss of protection, but rather a tool emptied of its original meaning. From a psychological and social perspective, the message was clear and devastating: violence was legitimized and any form of protection was denied.
During the war, similar situations abounded. Archives were destroyed, documents were lost, policies were suspended, families were unable to prove their rights or property. For many, the loss of coverage also meant the loss of a basic psychological security: the idea that the future could be, at least in part, protected.
In the postwar period, reconstruction also involved insurance: reopening records, acknowledging damages, and restoring trust. Looking back at wartime policies today reveals that insurance does not create risk, but reflects its limitations. Precisely for this reason, its social value lies in its ability to offer, whenever possible, a horizon of stability even in the most difficult times.
The routes covered were mainly maritime: Genoa towards the eastern Mediterranean , Florence along the land and sea trade routes across Europe.
Genoa and Florence - different but complementary roles:
Genoa , a major naval and commercial power, was among the first cities to formalize maritime insurance. The first known insurance contract dates back to 1347 and was signed in Genoa.
Florence , less maritime but extremely powerful financially, developed credit and banking instruments that made more sophisticated insurance systems possible. The great banking families (such as the Bardi and the Peruzzi) had a direct interest in reducing shipping risks.
SOURCE: https://conversableeconomist.com/2024/06/25/the-birth-of-insurance-markets-14th-century-italian-maritime-trading/
SOURCE: https://www.mapfre.com/en/insights/insurance/insurance-springboard-prosperity-humanity/
SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz6EJuHL9E8
SOURCE: https://milano.corriere.it/notizie/cronaca/25_giugno_11/francesco-mansutti-92-anni-il-maestro-degli-sistenzari-non-siamo-ben-visti-perche-parliamo-di-danni-e-sventure-ma-io-ho-a522fe0e-fee5-46a4-b4a4-e7dcbad9axlk.shtml
Related content
Insurance gave rise to fundamental inventions: the insurance contract, the concept of calculated risk, the premium, the policy, organized mutuality, actuarial statistics, and mutual funds. These tools revolutionized not only the economy but also the social management of uncertainty, giving rise to models of collective protection that are still relevant today.
What inventions originated from the history of insurance?
Insurance gave rise to fundamental inventions: the insurance contract, the concept of calculated risk, the premium, the policy, organized mutuality, actuarial statistics, and mutual funds. These tools revolutionized not only the economy but also the social management of uncertainty, giving rise to models of collective protection that are still relevant today.
What inventions originated from the history of insurance?
3. Medieval merchants
Between the second half of the twentieth century and the 1980s, the history of insurance entered a new phase, marked by the advance of globalization and the first technological transformations. This was not yet a digital revolution in the current sense, but a profound shift in the way insurance coverage was conceived, organized, and distributed.
After World War II, economic growth and increased international trade progressively expanded the scope of risk . Goods, capital, and people began to move more rapidly across national borders. Insurance companies thus found themselves operating in increasingly interconnected environments, where distant events could have significant impacts on economies and individuals. Risk was no longer merely local, but took on an international dimension.
In this scenario, large insurance groups and, above all, the role of reinsurance are strengthening. International reinsurance markets are becoming crucial for distributing complex and large-scale risks, such as natural disasters, industrial accidents, or global transportation losses. Insurance protection is thus evolving from an individual response to a tool capable of supporting entire economic systems.
At the same time, in the 1970s and 1980s, the first information technologies began to spread. Computers entered companies' internal processes, transforming data, contract, and claims management. Statistics became more sophisticated, actuarial models more precise, and the ability to analyze large amounts of information grew rapidly. This digitalization was still invisible to the customer, but crucial to the organization of the sector.
These changes also influence people's perception of risk. On the one hand, the increased complexity of the economic world makes risk more difficult to understand; on the other, insurance increasingly appears as a solid structure, capable of ensuring stability in a rapidly changing global environment. Trust is gradually shifting from the local intermediary to the insurance institution as a system.
By the late 1980s, the insurance industry was poised for another leap. Globalization had begun, the technological foundations were laid, and data became central. Without yet knowing it, insurance was on the threshold of a new era. The true digital revolution was upon us, but its story began right here: in a world that had learned to think about risk on a global scale and manage it with increasingly structured tools.
The routes covered were mainly maritime: Genoa towards the eastern Mediterranean , Florence along the land and sea trade routes across Europe.
Genoa and Florence - different but complementary roles:
Genoa , a major naval and commercial power, was among the first cities to formalize maritime insurance. The first known insurance contract dates back to 1347 and was signed in Genoa.
Florence , less maritime but extremely powerful financially, developed credit and banking instruments that made more sophisticated insurance systems possible. The great banking families (such as the Bardi and the Peruzzi) had a direct interest in reducing shipping risks.
SOURCE: https://conversableeconomist.com/2024/06/25/the-birth-of-insurance-markets-14th-century-italian-maritime-trading/
SOURCE: https://www.mapfre.com/en/insights/insurance/insurance-springboard-prosperity-humanity/
SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz6EJuHL9E8
SOURCE: https://milano.corriere.it/notizie/cronaca/25_giugno_11/francesco-mansutti-92-anni-il-maestro-degli-sistenzari-non-siamo-ben-visti-perche-parliamo-di-danni-e-sventure-ma-io-ho-a522fe0e-fee5-46a4-b4a4-e7dcbad9axlk.shtml
Related content
Insurance gave rise to fundamental inventions: the insurance contract, the concept of calculated risk, the premium, the policy, organized mutuality, actuarial statistics, and mutual funds. These tools revolutionized not only the economy but also the social management of uncertainty, giving rise to models of collective protection that are still relevant today.
What inventions originated from the history of insurance?
