Essays on a Comparative History of Fire Insurance

The aim of the present volume is to reassess the history of fire insurance and fire insurance law in selected European countries from comparative perspectives. Its point of departure is the observation that today’s state of research is unsatisfactory. Foremost, the history of fire insurance and fire insurance law presents itself differently in the various European historiographies. German authors usually assert that modern fire insurance is rooted in medieval and early modern guild support, and German literature further claims that state-run fire insurance schemes as first established towards the end of the seventeenth century were of particular importance for the development of modern fire insurance. By contrast, English literature often treats fire insurance and fire insurance law as being the offspring of marine insurance. Research in many other European countries follows English literature in treating fire insurance as being firmly rooted in marine insurance. The present volume revisits these different narratives.