Since 1736, Hamburg’s price current consistently listed the marine insurance premiums of the Hanseatic Town as well as of many other European ports. Based on the long-term analysis of these quotations over the course of about 120 years, this book sheds light on the factors of influence (such as weather conditions, wars and piracy, to name a few) which interfered with European and intercontinental maritime trade. The cause of the long-term decline of premium rates and, by extension also of transaction costs is understood as a consequence of both the restoration of security on the high...

This volume discusses the effects of industrialization on maritime trade, labour and communities in the Mediterranean and Black Sea from the 1850s to the 1920s. The 17 essays are based on new evidence from multiple type of primary sources on the transition from sail to steam navigation, written in a variety of languages, Italian, Spanish, French, Greek, Russian and Ottoman. Questions that arise in the book include the labour conditions, wages, career and retirement of seafarers, the socio-economic and spatial transformations of the maritime communities and the changes in the patterns of...

As the fall-out of the Ever Given Suez canal blockage shows, an ancient instrument like General Average (GA) is still highly relevant in redistributing risks and costs in maritime trade. However, bar marine insurance, not much is known about the development of tools of maritime risk management like GA, which redistributes extraordinary costs incurred for the common safety of maritime ventures. This book investigates the development of General Average and other so-called Averages in the Low Countries on the eve of the early modern period, showing how the various varieties of Averages...