INSURANCE, in Law and Commerce, a contract, whereby one party engages to pay the losses which the other may sustain, for a stipulated premium or consideration. The most common sorts are, Insurance against the dangers of the seas, insurance against fire, insurance of debts, and insurance of lives.
According to Beckmann, the oldest laws and regulations respecting insurance, are the following.
On the 28th of January 1523, five persons who had received an appointment for that purpose, drew up some articles at Florence, which continue to be employed on the exchange at Leghorn. These interesting regulations, and the prescribed form of policies, which are deemed the oldest, were inserted by Magens, in his treatise on insurance, published at Hamburg in Italian and German, in the year 1753.
A short regulation of the 25th May 1537, by the emperor Charles V. respecting bills of exchange and insurance, is still preserved, in which even the fulfilling of an agreement is strictly commanded.
In the year 1556, Philip II. of Spain gave the Spanish merchants certain regulations respecting insurance, which Magens has inserted in the fore-mentioned work. They contain some forms of policies on ships going to the Indies.
The chamber of insurance was established at Amsterdam in 1598, an account of the first regulations of which office was published by Pontanus, in his history of that city.
Regulations respecting insurance were formed by the city of Middleburg in Zealand, in the year 1600; and it appears that the first regulations respecting insurances in England, were made in the following year. We find from them, that insurers, prior to this period, had secured the confidence of the public so completely, by the honesty and rectitude of their conduct, that few occasions for dispute had arisen *.