ZAGREB, Nov 4 (Hina) - In the history of insurance, which is 5,000 years old, a very eminent place belongs to the southern Croatian port of Dubrovnik during the Renaissance period, when its fame rested on culture as well as on its
trade fleet. Dubrovnik's Historical Archive contains a 7 March 1395 paper which has all the aspects of a standard maritime insurance contract of the present day. Dubrovnik is also the proud originator of the oldest insurance law in the world.
ZAGREB, Nov 4 (Hina) - In the history of insurance, which is 5,000
years old, a very eminent place belongs to the southern Croatian
port of Dubrovnik during the Renaissance period, when its fame
rested on culture as well as on its trade fleet.
Dubrovnik's Historical Archive contains a 7 March 1395 paper which
has all the aspects of a standard maritime insurance contract of the
present day. Dubrovnik is also the proud originator of the oldest
insurance law in the world.#L#
The very beginnings of protection of property from possible harm
can be found in China 3,000 years B.C. Tradesmen on dangerous
locations along Chang river would transfer cargo from one big ship
to several smaller ones, which was the first recorded division of
one big risk into several smaller ones, according to an article
which Privredni vjesnik dedicated to the history of insurance. The
beginning of agreed insurance consisted in an obligation which
bound all tradesmen to join in compensating the damage suffered by
the one whose boat had sunk.
The same obligation was also recorded in Hammurabi's Code (Babylon,
1729-1689 B.C.). It covered caravan members who had been robbed.
A special place in the history of world insurance, of course,
belongs to London's Lloyd's, which was established towards the end
of the 17th century.
The Dubrovnik paper is three centuries older. Squire Pavao Gundulic
used it in 1395 to insure a pepper shipment to a Florentine worth 366
ducats. The insurer assumed the obligation to pay 200 gold ducats in
insurance money in case the goods perished due to bad weather, a
pirate attack, or accident.
In 1568, the Head Council of the Dubrovnik Republic at a proposal of
the Senate passed "ordo super aseguratoribus", an insurance decree
said to be the oldest insurance law of its kind in the world.
(hina) ha jn