Cover Image

Jake Dyble

Cover Image

Extract from Pinturicchio, Allegoria del Colle della Sapienza (Allegory of the Hill of Wisdom) (1505), Siena Cathedral, Tuscany. The mosaic represents a group of pilgrims who have arrived at the ‘hill of wisdom’ by boat. Dominating this first part of the scene is the figure of Fortuna. The cornucopia she holds in one hand represents wealth, but she is deeply unstable, with her right foot resting on a sphere and her left in the ship with a broken mast. The sail in her other hand completes her association with that riskiest of environments: the sea. The mosaic is thus a near-contemporary representation of maritime risk: needless to say, the wisdom-seeking pilgrim is advised to leave such temptations behind. Reproduction authorised by the Opera della Metropolitana Aut. N. 293/2024.

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Managing Maritime Risk in Early Modern Europe

Stable URL:https://openaccess.boydellandbrewercms.com/?id=-290950

Open Access license

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.

Author

Jake Dyble

PublisherBoydell Press

Print publication date Mar, 2025

Print ISBN 9781837651559

EISBN 9781805432647

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Cover Image

Managing Maritime Risk in Early Modern Europe

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