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UNDERWRITING BRITISH TRADE TO INDIA AND CHINA, 1780–1835*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2012

A. B. LEONARD
A. B. LEONARD*
Affiliation:
Trinity Hall, Cambridge
*
Trinity Hall, Cambridge CB2 1TJabl28@cam.ac.uk
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Abstract

In the late eighteenth century, European merchants launched corporate insurance bodies in India and China. These new joint-stock companies followed London's mature and efficient institutional systems for marine insurance, and adopted their basis in the European law merchant. They operated alongside local risk transfer facilities, but in both countries were quickly embraced by native merchants, who participated both as customers and shareholders. The rapid development of a corporate insurance sector in India and China, fuelled by the capital of local merchants and members of the European colonial elite, underlines the effectiveness of premium-based marine insurance, while its swift adoption by both local and international merchants shows its importance to the development of trade and empire.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 55 , Issue 4 , December 2012 , pp. 983 - 1006
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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Footnotes

*

I am grateful for the help of C. A. Bayly, Martin Daunton, D'Maris Coffman, and Duncan Needham in the preparation of this article, and for the constructive input of anonymous reviewers from this journal.

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