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.
DIDASCALIA IMMAGINE
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.
Related content
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.
DIDASCALIA IMMAGINE
SOURCE: Ken Brownlee, History of Insurance Adjusting, Part 2: The Middle Ages, www.propertycasualty360.com, 2014
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?
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?
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?
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?
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.
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?
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.
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
In the insurance landscape of the nineteenth century there is a little-known and deeply controversial chapter: that of policies taken out on slaves , a direct translation of an era in which human beings reduced to captivity were treated as property and inserted into the economic logic of colonial systems.
This phenomenon, documented in various contexts of the Atlantic world, appears particularly evident also in Cuba, where some companies drew up insurance policies intended to compensate owners in the event of death, illness, loss or escape of slaves.
Among the most significant testimonies preserved today in Italy, a central role is played by the MUDA – Insurance Museum of Milan, which houses rare documents from the companies La Protectora and Providence .
These are authentic 19th-century policies, drawn up with the same structure and terminology used for material goods, in which the slave is not identified as a person, but as "human capital" to be protected financially. These documents, precious for their historical value, allow us to understand the technical functioning of these hedges and the economic context in which they were born.
International sources confirm the presence of similar practices in other regions: in the United States, the Caribbean, and parts of Latin America, some companies offered insurance on slaves employed on plantations, in transport, or during transatlantic voyages. Although the contractual structure varied from country to country, the technical framework remained similar: an estimate of the economic value attributed to the slave, an annual premium, and compensation in the event of an adverse event.
It's important to remember that these policies were not "life" insurance in the modern sense. They protected not the person, but the owner's assets. The administrative language of the time, often cold and impersonal, reflects the mentality of an economic system that considered slaves as assets comparable to working animals or agricultural machinery. This aspect is particularly evident in the Cuban documents preserved by the MUDA, where terms such as "loss," "diminution in value," or "forgotten yield" are applied to human life with surprising administrative ease.
The existence of these policies today represents an essential element of study for understanding the economic dimension of slavery and the way in which the insurance system, albeit with a completely different logic from today's, indirectly participated in the maintenance of colonial power structures. For this reason, museums and scholars emphasize that these documents should be read not only as technical evidence, but as tools for reflecting on the historical responsibility of economic institutions.
Their presence in the Italian archives—and in particular in the MUDA—offers a unique opportunity to rigorously and thoughtfully address a complex topic, demonstrating how insurance, born to protect people and property, has spanned eras in which the very concept of human value and dignity was profoundly different from what we recognize as universal today.
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?
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?
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
During the 19th century, particularly in France, insurance developed a curious and now almost forgotten form of protection: military service policies. At a time when military service was conducted by lottery, many families feared the prospect of a child being called up to the front, interrupting their studies, work, and financial support for their household.
It was in this social climate that specific insurance products were born, designed to offer a concrete alternative.
The mechanism was only apparently simple: the young man took out an insurance policy so that, in the event of his being selected for military service, the company would pay a remplaçant, a voluntary replacement who would take his place.
The phenomenon was perfectly legal and widespread, so much so that it created a veritable market for replacements, often men without means willing to enlist in exchange for compensation. For wealthier families, the insurance represented a sort of "guarantee of continuity"; for the lower classes, however, it was a luxury difficult to afford.
However, this system also gave rise to numerous controversies. It was not uncommon for companies to be unable to find a replacement within the required timeframe, especially during conflicts or periods of extraordinary mobilization. In such circumstances, some policies became the subject of legal disputes: beneficiaries accused insurers of non-compliance, while companies argued that the obligation was contingent on the actual availability of volunteers. In France, there are documented cases in which courts had to decide whether the insurer should pay a penalty, compensation, or be considered exempt due to force majeure.
These policies, now part of social history rather than insurance technology, tell the story of an era when insurance didn't just protect assets or businesses, but intervened directly in civilian life and the fragilities of the military service. They're also a useful reminder: insurance products are never created in a vacuum, but respond to needs deeply rooted in the society of their time.
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?
