Final Report Summary - ECONOMICHISTORY (Contracts, Institutions, and Markets in Historical Perspective)
The key and long-lasting achievement of the research project has been the successful implementation of the archival search through thousands of volumes of notarial deeds and court records at the State Archives of Genova, Firenze, Palermo, as well as the Archivio Datini in Prato. This search is the first systematic analysis of maritime insurance contracts and marine insurance markets in medieval and Renaissance Italy from previously unexplored primary sources housed in archives. This is a major achievement because searching into these archives and retrieving the information scattered across thousands and thousands of pages of notarial records never explored before requires an enormous amount of time and effort by a dedicated team of scholars. The data contain detailed information on trade routes, length and season of the trips, goods shipped, names of insurers and merchants buying insurance, any relevant clauses, and insurance premia. This latter information (insurance premia) is a fascinating one because the formal notion of probability appeared only during the 17th century. Hence, these data can reveal how medieval merchants computed insurance premia despite lacking a formal notion of probability.
We provide here the transcription of one of the thousands of contracts we found and coded:
▪ Date of the contract: December 23, 1385
▪ Name of the merchant buying marine insurance: Francesco di Marco Datini and business partners from Prato, who bought the merchandise from Batista Lomellino in Genoa and will sell it to Ambrogio di Bino in Palermo
▪ Merchandise covered by the insurance contract: 4 balle di panni e 1 balla di “streglie” (= 4 pieces of cloth and 1 piece of “streglie”)
▪ Total value of the merchandise: 1550 gold florins
▪ Value of the merchandise for which marine insurance is bought: 1200 gold florins (so the insurance contract does not cover the remaining 350 gold florins)
▪ Owner of the ship on which the goods are transported: Piero Sansone di Saona
▪ Intermediary (broker) for the insurance contract: Gherardo d'Ormanno
▪ Names of the individuals providing insurance and amount (in gold florins) that each of them commits to cover: Lodovico lo Sciancato and Giovanni Grassolino: 250; Gherardo Grassolino, 50; Michaele del Voglia, 200; Tieri and Lamberto di Domenico, 150; Ardingo de' Ricci and business partners, 150; Lemmo di Balduccio et Doffo degli Spini e compagni, 100; Piero and Piero del Voglia: 150 fiorini d'oro; Uguccione and Niccolò di Rau: 150
▪ Locations and time period covered by the insurance contract: from when the merchandise is brought on the ship in Porto Pisano in Tuscany to when it is discharged at the arrival in Palermo.
▪ Total insurance premium: 54 gold florins (equivalent to 4 and ½ gold florin for each 100 gold florin insured)
▪ Insurance premia for each individual providing the insurance: Lodovico lo Sciancato and Giovanni Grassolino: 11 and 2 ¼; Gherardo Grassolino: 2 and ¼; Michaele del Voglia: 9; Tieri and Lamberto di Domenico di Tieri: 6 and soldi 11; Ardingo de' Ricci and business partners: 6 and soldi 11; Lemmo di Balduccio et Doffo degli Spini and business partners: 4 and ½; Piero and Piero del Voglia: 6 and soldi 11; Uguccione and Niccolò di Rau: 6 and soldi 15
▪ Deadline to pay the amount insured in case of disaster (e.g. the ship sinks): 2 months after the disaster occurred. The amount can be paid in Pisa, Firenze, Siena, Genova and any other location at the will of those who bought insurance (in this case Francesco di Marco Datini and business partners). If the payment occurs outside Pisa, Francesco cannot ask those who provided insurance to cover the exchange rate risk. If Francesco does not ask within 8 months those who provided insurance to pay the amount due to him, the contract is no longer valid and nothing is due to him.
▪ Type of contingencies for which insurance is provided: weather risk, sea risk, pirate risk, and any other negative event that may occur to the merchandise on the ship during the trip from Porto Pisano and Palermo.
The information from these historical records can now be easily retrieved and searched through an Access-based software (“The Mille Miglia” project) that is freely available from the PI for both research and educational purposes. In the near future the unique dataset containing thousands of insurance contracts will enable a rigorous empirical analysis that can shed light on the key determinants of the emergence and characteristics of one of the most fundamental contracts and markets that shape today economies --- the insurance one.
We provide here the transcription of one of the thousands of contracts we found and coded:
▪ Date of the contract: December 23, 1385
▪ Name of the merchant buying marine insurance: Francesco di Marco Datini and business partners from Prato, who bought the merchandise from Batista Lomellino in Genoa and will sell it to Ambrogio di Bino in Palermo
▪ Merchandise covered by the insurance contract: 4 balle di panni e 1 balla di “streglie” (= 4 pieces of cloth and 1 piece of “streglie”)
▪ Total value of the merchandise: 1550 gold florins
▪ Value of the merchandise for which marine insurance is bought: 1200 gold florins (so the insurance contract does not cover the remaining 350 gold florins)
▪ Owner of the ship on which the goods are transported: Piero Sansone di Saona
▪ Intermediary (broker) for the insurance contract: Gherardo d'Ormanno
▪ Names of the individuals providing insurance and amount (in gold florins) that each of them commits to cover: Lodovico lo Sciancato and Giovanni Grassolino: 250; Gherardo Grassolino, 50; Michaele del Voglia, 200; Tieri and Lamberto di Domenico, 150; Ardingo de' Ricci and business partners, 150; Lemmo di Balduccio et Doffo degli Spini e compagni, 100; Piero and Piero del Voglia: 150 fiorini d'oro; Uguccione and Niccolò di Rau: 150
▪ Locations and time period covered by the insurance contract: from when the merchandise is brought on the ship in Porto Pisano in Tuscany to when it is discharged at the arrival in Palermo.
▪ Total insurance premium: 54 gold florins (equivalent to 4 and ½ gold florin for each 100 gold florin insured)
▪ Insurance premia for each individual providing the insurance: Lodovico lo Sciancato and Giovanni Grassolino: 11 and 2 ¼; Gherardo Grassolino: 2 and ¼; Michaele del Voglia: 9; Tieri and Lamberto di Domenico di Tieri: 6 and soldi 11; Ardingo de' Ricci and business partners: 6 and soldi 11; Lemmo di Balduccio et Doffo degli Spini and business partners: 4 and ½; Piero and Piero del Voglia: 6 and soldi 11; Uguccione and Niccolò di Rau: 6 and soldi 15
▪ Deadline to pay the amount insured in case of disaster (e.g. the ship sinks): 2 months after the disaster occurred. The amount can be paid in Pisa, Firenze, Siena, Genova and any other location at the will of those who bought insurance (in this case Francesco di Marco Datini and business partners). If the payment occurs outside Pisa, Francesco cannot ask those who provided insurance to cover the exchange rate risk. If Francesco does not ask within 8 months those who provided insurance to pay the amount due to him, the contract is no longer valid and nothing is due to him.
▪ Type of contingencies for which insurance is provided: weather risk, sea risk, pirate risk, and any other negative event that may occur to the merchandise on the ship during the trip from Porto Pisano and Palermo.
The information from these historical records can now be easily retrieved and searched through an Access-based software (“The Mille Miglia” project) that is freely available from the PI for both research and educational purposes. In the near future the unique dataset containing thousands of insurance contracts will enable a rigorous empirical analysis that can shed light on the key determinants of the emergence and characteristics of one of the most fundamental contracts and markets that shape today economies --- the insurance one.