Managing Maritime Risk in Early Modern Europe
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A01=Jake Dyble
Author_Jake Dyble
Category=KCZ
Category=NHDL
Category=NHTM
Commercial Seafaring
Customary Maritime Law
Early Modern Europe
Economic Development
eq_bestseller
eq_business-finance-law
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
General Average
Livorno
Maritime Commerce
Maritime Risk
Risk Management
Risk-sharing
Shipping and Trade
Tuscan Port
Product details
- ISBN 9781837652822
- Weight: 666g
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 11 Mar 2025
- Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Draws on the rich surviving archives of the Tuscan port of Livorno to explore how General Average worked.
Commercial seafaring, both dangerous and with large amounts of capital at stake, was the source of the risk-management institutions that still undergird the global economy today. A key institution of early modern risk management was General Average, a procedure used to redistribute extraordinary costs arising from a maritime venture between all financially interested parties. For example, should one merchant's cargo be jettisoned to lighten a ship in a storm, the loss would be shared pro rata by the shipper and all the cargo-owners. A risk-sharing practice, different from the risk-shifting of marine insurance which became established relatively late, General Average is still in widespread use.
This book explores how General Average worked. It reveals the gap between General Average in law and how it worked on the ground. It shows how General Average partitioned a wide array of business costs, thereby performing a significant role in structuring maritime commerce, managing risk and promoting shipping and trade. In addition, the book discusses how far General Average was a feature of a supposedly ancient, universal, customary maritime law, and contributes to debates about the evolution of institutions in economic development.
Jake Dyble is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Padova, Italy
