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The Actuarial Practices of British Insurance Companies in Peripheral Markets: The Case of Spain (1890–1936)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 September 2015

JERÒNIA PONS PONS
Affiliation:
Jerònia Pons Pons is a senior lecturer at the Economics and Economic History Department, University of Seville. Contact information: Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, University of Seville, Avda. Ramón y Cajal, 1, 41018, Seville, Spain. Email: jpons@us.es.
PABLO GUTIÉRREZ GONZÁLEZ
Affiliation:
Pablo Gutiérrez González is a research assistant at the Economics and Economic History Department, University of Seville. Contact information: Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, University of Seville, Avda. Ramón y Cajal, 1, 41018, Seville, Spain. Email: pgutierrez1@us.es.

Abstract

The backwardness of actuarial techniques in Spain and the lack of Spanish mortality tables had a bearing on the development of life insurance in Spain. The actuaries of the domestic and foreign companies operating in this country used other countries’ mortality tables, corrected upwards, to draw up their policies. With actuarial reports from the Gresham Life Assurance Society, established in Spain in the 1890s, the difficulties actuaries had to confront to adjust expectations to Spanish reality can be followed for decades. On the basis of statistical information from 1896 to 1937, a comparison is made between expected and actual death rates. Furthermore, the information from this company enables a comparison with other countries in which it operated (more developed and less developed than Spain) and with the profit and loss results of other domestic and foreign companies operating in the country. Moreover, the problems caused for actuaries by unforeseen events that affected the Spanish population in particular, such as the “Spanish Influenza” or the Civil War, can also be studied. On the basis of this valuable documentation, certain patterns of the difficulties faced by actuaries operating in economically backward countries before World War II can be established.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The Author 2015. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved. 

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References

Bibliography of Works Cited

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Bahamonde, A. El horizonte económico de la burguesía isabelina. Madrid 1856–1866. Madrid: Editorial de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 1981.Google Scholar
Benítez de Lugo, F. El contrato de seguro de vida con participación del asegurado en los beneficios de la Compañía aseguradora. Madrid: Economía, 1928.Google Scholar
Borscheid, P. and Haueter, N. V., eds. World Insurance. The Evolution of a Global Risk Network. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Clark, G. Betting on Lives: The Culture of Life Insurance in England, 1695–1775. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Cockerell, H. A. L. and Green, E.. The British Insurance Business, 1547–1970. London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1976.Google Scholar
Dopico, F. and Reher, D., El declive de la mortalidad en España, 1860–1930. Madrid: Asociación de Demografía Histórica, 1998.Google Scholar
Fuentes, V. Tablas de mortalidad, supervivencia, vida media y vida probable. Madrid: Meléndez Valdés, 1927.Google Scholar
Instituto Geográfico y Estadístico. Reseña Geográfica y Estadística. Madrid: Imprenta de la Dirección General del Instituto Geográfico y Estadístico, 1888.Google Scholar
Jones, G. Banks as Multinationals. London: Routledge, 1990.Google Scholar
Jones, G., ed. Multinationals and Global Capitalism: From the Nineteenth to Twenty-First Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Knight, C. K. The History of Life Insurance in the United States to 1870. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1920.Google Scholar
Livi-Bacci, M. Historia mínima de la población mundial. Barcelona: Crítica, 2012.Google Scholar
Merino, M. Reflexiones y conjeturas sobre la mortalidad en España. Madrid: Eduardo Cuesta, 1866.Google Scholar
Moir, H. Sources and Characteristics of the Principal Mortality Tables. New York: The Actuarial Society of America, 1919.Google Scholar
Ossorio y Gallardo, A. El seguro de vida y las normas ordinarias del derecho civil. Madrid: Editorial Reus, 1930.Google Scholar
Pérez-Moreda, V. Las crisis de mortalidad en la España interior. Siglos XVI–XIX. Madrid: Siglo XXI, 1980.Google Scholar
Prados de la Escosura, L. El progreso económico de España (1850–2000), Bilbao: Fundación BBVA, 2003.Google Scholar
Schooling, W. The Standard Life Assurance Company, 1825–1925. Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1925.Google Scholar
Suple, B. The Royal Exchange Assurance: A History of British Insurance (1720–1970). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970.Google Scholar
Tortella, G., Caruana, L., García, J. L., Manzano, A., and Pons, J.. Historia del seguro en España. Madrid: Fundación MAPFRE, 2014.Google Scholar
Trebilcock, C. Phoenix Assurance and the Development of British Insurance, Vol. 1, 1782–1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Vázquez-Queipo, V. Tablas de los logaritmos vulgares. Madrid: Imprenta de José Cruzado, 1865.Google Scholar
Withers, H. Pioneers of British Life Insurance. London: Staples Press, 1951.Google Scholar
Wright, R. and Smith, G.. Mutually Beneficial: The Guardian and Life Insurance in America. New York: New York University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Adams, M., Andersson, L. F, Hardwick, P., and Lindmark, M.. “Firm Size and Growth in Sweden’s Life Insurance Market between 1855 and 1947: A Test of Gibrat’s Law.” Business History 56, no. 6 (2014): 956974.Google Scholar
Baranoff, D. “A Policy of Cooperation: The Cartelization of American Fire Insurance, 1873–1906.” Financial History Review 10, no. 2 (2003): 119136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boksjö, A. and Lönnborg, M.. “Collusive and Competitive Institutions in the Swedish Insurance Market.” Nordisk Försäkringstidkrift 75, no. 2 (1994): 139159.Google Scholar
Bouk, D. “The Science of Difference: Developing Tools for Discrimination in the American Life Insurance Industry, 1830–1930.” Enterprise & Society 12, no. 4 (2011): 717731.Google Scholar
Butt, J. “Life Assurance in War and Depression: The Standard Life Assurance Company and its Environment, 1914–39.” In The Historian and the Business of Insurance, edited by Westall, O., 155172. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Campbell, J. A. “Mortality Tables in Life Insurance Management.” The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science / Revue canadienne d’Economique et de Science politique 6, no. 3 (1940): 424439.Google Scholar
Cummins, D. J. “Asset Pricing Models and Insurance Ratemaking.” ASTIN Bulletin 20, no. 2 (1990): 125166.Google Scholar
Dopico, F. “Regional Mortality Tables for Spain in the 1860s.” Historical Methods 20, no. 4 (1987): 173179.Google Scholar
Dopico, F. “Censos, movemento natural e saldos migratorios. Unha nova estimación da natalidade, a mortalidade e a emigración española no último cuarto do século XIX.” Estudios Migratorios 1 (1995): 102119.Google Scholar
Erkoreka, A. “The Spanish Influenza Pandemic in Occidental Europe (1918–1920) and Victim Age.” Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses 4, no. 2 (2010): 8189.Google Scholar
Fanfani, T. “L’assurance vie en Italie entre iniciative privée et monopole (XIXe siècle-début XXe siècle). In Insurance in Industrial Societies: Economic Role, Agents and Market from the 18th Century to Today, edited by Núñez, C. E., 3155. Sevilla: Universidad de Sevilla, 1998.Google Scholar
Guertin, A. N. “Mortality Tables—Financial Measuring Rods in Life Insurance.” Journal of the American Statistical Association 35, no. 209 (1940): 5564.Google Scholar
Keneley, M. “The Evolution of the Australian Life Insurance Industry.” Accounting, Business & Financial History 11, no. 2 (2001): 145170.Google Scholar
Keneley, M. “The Origins of Formal Collusion in Australian Fire Insurance, 1870–1920.” Australian Economic History Review 42, no. 1(2002): 5476.Google Scholar
Lasheras-Sanz, A. “Estudio relativo al ajuste de tablas de supervivencia general, y de válidos e inválidos especialmente.” Anales del Instituto de Actuarios Españoles, 1ª Época, 3 (1945): 167186.Google Scholar
Lasheras-Sanz, A. “Desarrollo de la profesión actuarial en España.” Anales del Instituto de Actuarios Españoles, 2ª Época, 4 (1964): 271284.Google Scholar
Lew, E. A. “Mortality Statistics for Life Insurance Underwriting.” Journal of the American Statistical Association 43, no. 242 (1948): 274289.Google Scholar
Lindmark, M., Andersson, L. F., and Adams, M.. “The Evolution and Development of the Swedish Insurance Market.” Accounting, Business & Financial History 16, no. 3 (2007): 341370.Google Scholar
North, D. “Life Insurance and Investment Banking at the time of the Armstrong Investigation, 1905–06.” Journal of Economic History 14, no. 3 (1954): 209228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearson, R. “Towards an Historical Model of Services Innovation: The Case of the Insurance Industry, 1700–1914.” The Economic History Review 50, no. 2 (1997): 235256.Google Scholar
Pearson, R. “Regulatory Regimes and Multinational Insurers before 1914.” Business History Review 82, no. 1 (2008): 5986.Google Scholar
Pearson, R. “Las compañías de seguros extranjeras en España antes de 1914.” In, Investigaciones históricas sobre el Seguro español, edited by Pons, J. and Pons, M. A., 101130. Madrid: Fundación MAPFRE, 2010.Google Scholar
Pearson, R. “United Kingdom: Pioneering Insurance Internationally.” In World Insurance: The Evolution of a Global Risk Network, edited by Borscheid, P., , P. and Haueter, N. V., 6797. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearson, R. and Lönnborg, M.. “Thrift or Dissipation? The Business of Life Insurance in the Early Nineteenth Century.” The Economic History Review 43, no. 2 (1990): 236254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pons, J. “Multinational Enterprises and Institutional Regulation in the Life-Insurance Market in Spain, 1880–1935.” Business History Review 82, no. 1 (2008): 87114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pons, J. “The Influence of Multinationals in the Organization of the Spanish Insurance Market: Diversification and Cartelisation, 1880–1939.” In Internationalisation and Globalisation of the Insurance Industry in the 19th and 20th Centuries, edited by Borscheid, P. and Pearson, R., 4965. Zurich/Marburg: Philipps University Marburg, 2007.Google Scholar
Pons, J. “Las empresas extranjeras en el seguro español ante el aumento del nacionalismo económico.” In Investigaciones históricas sobre el Seguro español, edited by Pons, J. and Pons, M. A., 191226. Madrid: Fundación MAPFRE, 2010.Google Scholar
Pons, J. “Las estrategias de crecimiento de las compañías de seguros en España (1900–1940).” In Documentos de Trabajo Fundación Empresa Pública, 2002, ftp://ftp.funep.es/phe/hdt2002_1.pdf (accessed March 10, 2014).Google Scholar
Sales, N. “Marchands d’hommes et societés d’assurances contre le service militaire au XIX siècle.” Revue d’Histoire Economique et Sociale, XLVI, no. 3 (1968): 339380.Google Scholar
Sales, N. “Sociedades de seguros contra las quintas (1865–1868).” In La revolución de 1868. Historia, Pensamiento, Literatura, edited by Linda, C. and Zavala, I. M., 109125. New York: Las Américas Publishing Co., 1970.Google Scholar
Treble, J. “The Pattern of Investment of the Standard Life Assurance Company, 1875–1914.” Business History 22, no. 2 (1980): 170188.Google Scholar
Treble, J. “The Record of The Standard Life Assurance Company in the Life Assurance Market of the United Kingdom, 1850–64.” In The Historian and the Business of Insurance, edited by Westall, O., 95113. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Westall, O. “David and Goliath: the Fire Offices Committee and non-tariff competition, 1898–1907.” In, ed., The Historian and the Business of Insurance, edited by Westall, O., 130–54. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Wilkins, M. “Multinational Enterprise in Insurance: An Historical Overview.” Business History 51, no. 3 (2009): 334363.Google Scholar
London Metropolitan Archive Google Scholar
Boletín Oficial de Seguros (1913–1926)Google Scholar
Boletín Oficial de la Inspección Mercantil y de Seguros (1927–1928)Google Scholar
Revista de Previsión (1929–1934)Google Scholar
Boletín Oficial de Seguros y Ahorro (1934–1936).Google Scholar
La correspondencia de España Google Scholar
El eco patronal Google Scholar
Alborn, T. Regulated Lives: Life Insurance and British Society, 1800–1914. Toronto: Toronto University Press, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bahamonde, A. El horizonte económico de la burguesía isabelina. Madrid 1856–1866. Madrid: Editorial de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 1981.Google Scholar
Benítez de Lugo, F. El contrato de seguro de vida con participación del asegurado en los beneficios de la Compañía aseguradora. Madrid: Economía, 1928.Google Scholar
Borscheid, P. and Haueter, N. V., eds. World Insurance. The Evolution of a Global Risk Network. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Clark, G. Betting on Lives: The Culture of Life Insurance in England, 1695–1775. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Cockerell, H. A. L. and Green, E.. The British Insurance Business, 1547–1970. London: Heinemann Educational Books, 1976.Google Scholar
Dopico, F. and Reher, D., El declive de la mortalidad en España, 1860–1930. Madrid: Asociación de Demografía Histórica, 1998.Google Scholar
Fuentes, V. Tablas de mortalidad, supervivencia, vida media y vida probable. Madrid: Meléndez Valdés, 1927.Google Scholar
Instituto Geográfico y Estadístico. Reseña Geográfica y Estadística. Madrid: Imprenta de la Dirección General del Instituto Geográfico y Estadístico, 1888.Google Scholar
Jones, G. Banks as Multinationals. London: Routledge, 1990.Google Scholar
Jones, G., ed. Multinationals and Global Capitalism: From the Nineteenth to Twenty-First Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Knight, C. K. The History of Life Insurance in the United States to 1870. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1920.Google Scholar
Livi-Bacci, M. Historia mínima de la población mundial. Barcelona: Crítica, 2012.Google Scholar
Merino, M. Reflexiones y conjeturas sobre la mortalidad en España. Madrid: Eduardo Cuesta, 1866.Google Scholar
Moir, H. Sources and Characteristics of the Principal Mortality Tables. New York: The Actuarial Society of America, 1919.Google Scholar
Ossorio y Gallardo, A. El seguro de vida y las normas ordinarias del derecho civil. Madrid: Editorial Reus, 1930.Google Scholar
Pérez-Moreda, V. Las crisis de mortalidad en la España interior. Siglos XVI–XIX. Madrid: Siglo XXI, 1980.Google Scholar
Prados de la Escosura, L. El progreso económico de España (1850–2000), Bilbao: Fundación BBVA, 2003.Google Scholar
Schooling, W. The Standard Life Assurance Company, 1825–1925. Edinburgh: William Blackwood, 1925.Google Scholar
Suple, B. The Royal Exchange Assurance: A History of British Insurance (1720–1970). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970.Google Scholar
Tortella, G., Caruana, L., García, J. L., Manzano, A., and Pons, J.. Historia del seguro en España. Madrid: Fundación MAPFRE, 2014.Google Scholar
Trebilcock, C. Phoenix Assurance and the Development of British Insurance, Vol. 1, 1782–1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Vázquez-Queipo, V. Tablas de los logaritmos vulgares. Madrid: Imprenta de José Cruzado, 1865.Google Scholar
Withers, H. Pioneers of British Life Insurance. London: Staples Press, 1951.Google Scholar
Wright, R. and Smith, G.. Mutually Beneficial: The Guardian and Life Insurance in America. New York: New York University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Adams, M., Andersson, L. F, Hardwick, P., and Lindmark, M.. “Firm Size and Growth in Sweden’s Life Insurance Market between 1855 and 1947: A Test of Gibrat’s Law.” Business History 56, no. 6 (2014): 956974.Google Scholar
Baranoff, D. “A Policy of Cooperation: The Cartelization of American Fire Insurance, 1873–1906.” Financial History Review 10, no. 2 (2003): 119136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boksjö, A. and Lönnborg, M.. “Collusive and Competitive Institutions in the Swedish Insurance Market.” Nordisk Försäkringstidkrift 75, no. 2 (1994): 139159.Google Scholar
Bouk, D. “The Science of Difference: Developing Tools for Discrimination in the American Life Insurance Industry, 1830–1930.” Enterprise & Society 12, no. 4 (2011): 717731.Google Scholar
Butt, J. “Life Assurance in War and Depression: The Standard Life Assurance Company and its Environment, 1914–39.” In The Historian and the Business of Insurance, edited by Westall, O., 155172. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Campbell, J. A. “Mortality Tables in Life Insurance Management.” The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science / Revue canadienne d’Economique et de Science politique 6, no. 3 (1940): 424439.Google Scholar
Cummins, D. J. “Asset Pricing Models and Insurance Ratemaking.” ASTIN Bulletin 20, no. 2 (1990): 125166.Google Scholar
Dopico, F. “Regional Mortality Tables for Spain in the 1860s.” Historical Methods 20, no. 4 (1987): 173179.Google Scholar
Dopico, F. “Censos, movemento natural e saldos migratorios. Unha nova estimación da natalidade, a mortalidade e a emigración española no último cuarto do século XIX.” Estudios Migratorios 1 (1995): 102119.Google Scholar
Erkoreka, A. “The Spanish Influenza Pandemic in Occidental Europe (1918–1920) and Victim Age.” Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses 4, no. 2 (2010): 8189.Google Scholar
Fanfani, T. “L’assurance vie en Italie entre iniciative privée et monopole (XIXe siècle-début XXe siècle). In Insurance in Industrial Societies: Economic Role, Agents and Market from the 18th Century to Today, edited by Núñez, C. E., 3155. Sevilla: Universidad de Sevilla, 1998.Google Scholar
Guertin, A. N. “Mortality Tables—Financial Measuring Rods in Life Insurance.” Journal of the American Statistical Association 35, no. 209 (1940): 5564.Google Scholar
Keneley, M. “The Evolution of the Australian Life Insurance Industry.” Accounting, Business & Financial History 11, no. 2 (2001): 145170.Google Scholar
Keneley, M. “The Origins of Formal Collusion in Australian Fire Insurance, 1870–1920.” Australian Economic History Review 42, no. 1(2002): 5476.Google Scholar
Lasheras-Sanz, A. “Estudio relativo al ajuste de tablas de supervivencia general, y de válidos e inválidos especialmente.” Anales del Instituto de Actuarios Españoles, 1ª Época, 3 (1945): 167186.Google Scholar
Lasheras-Sanz, A. “Desarrollo de la profesión actuarial en España.” Anales del Instituto de Actuarios Españoles, 2ª Época, 4 (1964): 271284.Google Scholar
Lew, E. A. “Mortality Statistics for Life Insurance Underwriting.” Journal of the American Statistical Association 43, no. 242 (1948): 274289.Google Scholar
Lindmark, M., Andersson, L. F., and Adams, M.. “The Evolution and Development of the Swedish Insurance Market.” Accounting, Business & Financial History 16, no. 3 (2007): 341370.Google Scholar
North, D. “Life Insurance and Investment Banking at the time of the Armstrong Investigation, 1905–06.” Journal of Economic History 14, no. 3 (1954): 209228.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearson, R. “Towards an Historical Model of Services Innovation: The Case of the Insurance Industry, 1700–1914.” The Economic History Review 50, no. 2 (1997): 235256.Google Scholar
Pearson, R. “Regulatory Regimes and Multinational Insurers before 1914.” Business History Review 82, no. 1 (2008): 5986.Google Scholar
Pearson, R. “Las compañías de seguros extranjeras en España antes de 1914.” In, Investigaciones históricas sobre el Seguro español, edited by Pons, J. and Pons, M. A., 101130. Madrid: Fundación MAPFRE, 2010.Google Scholar
Pearson, R. “United Kingdom: Pioneering Insurance Internationally.” In World Insurance: The Evolution of a Global Risk Network, edited by Borscheid, P., , P. and Haueter, N. V., 6797. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearson, R. and Lönnborg, M.. “Thrift or Dissipation? The Business of Life Insurance in the Early Nineteenth Century.” The Economic History Review 43, no. 2 (1990): 236254.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pons, J. “Multinational Enterprises and Institutional Regulation in the Life-Insurance Market in Spain, 1880–1935.” Business History Review 82, no. 1 (2008): 87114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pons, J. “The Influence of Multinationals in the Organization of the Spanish Insurance Market: Diversification and Cartelisation, 1880–1939.” In Internationalisation and Globalisation of the Insurance Industry in the 19th and 20th Centuries, edited by Borscheid, P. and Pearson, R., 4965. Zurich/Marburg: Philipps University Marburg, 2007.Google Scholar
Pons, J. “Las empresas extranjeras en el seguro español ante el aumento del nacionalismo económico.” In Investigaciones históricas sobre el Seguro español, edited by Pons, J. and Pons, M. A., 191226. Madrid: Fundación MAPFRE, 2010.Google Scholar
Pons, J. “Las estrategias de crecimiento de las compañías de seguros en España (1900–1940).” In Documentos de Trabajo Fundación Empresa Pública, 2002, ftp://ftp.funep.es/phe/hdt2002_1.pdf (accessed March 10, 2014).Google Scholar
Sales, N. “Marchands d’hommes et societés d’assurances contre le service militaire au XIX siècle.” Revue d’Histoire Economique et Sociale, XLVI, no. 3 (1968): 339380.Google Scholar
Sales, N. “Sociedades de seguros contra las quintas (1865–1868).” In La revolución de 1868. Historia, Pensamiento, Literatura, edited by Linda, C. and Zavala, I. M., 109125. New York: Las Américas Publishing Co., 1970.Google Scholar
Treble, J. “The Pattern of Investment of the Standard Life Assurance Company, 1875–1914.” Business History 22, no. 2 (1980): 170188.Google Scholar
Treble, J. “The Record of The Standard Life Assurance Company in the Life Assurance Market of the United Kingdom, 1850–64.” In The Historian and the Business of Insurance, edited by Westall, O., 95113. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Westall, O. “David and Goliath: the Fire Offices Committee and non-tariff competition, 1898–1907.” In, ed., The Historian and the Business of Insurance, edited by Westall, O., 130–54. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984.Google Scholar
Wilkins, M. “Multinational Enterprise in Insurance: An Historical Overview.” Business History 51, no. 3 (2009): 334363.Google Scholar
London Metropolitan Archive Google Scholar
Boletín Oficial de Seguros (1913–1926)Google Scholar
Boletín Oficial de la Inspección Mercantil y de Seguros (1927–1928)Google Scholar
Revista de Previsión (1929–1934)Google Scholar
Boletín Oficial de Seguros y Ahorro (1934–1936).Google Scholar
La correspondencia de España Google Scholar
El eco patronal Google Scholar