Let's See How Fire Insurance Begin

Posted by Amy on December 23rd, 2015

Fire insurance singapore as now often practiced is usually thought about to have begun after the great conflagration of London in 1666. While marine insurance - the oldest type of insurance in existence - had been steadily developing & extending with the great expansion of trade & navigation which followed the discovery of the New World, & although merchants arid ship owners from very remote times clearly foresaw & provided against the perils of navigation, very tiny specific attempt was made by property owners to secure indemnity for loss caused by fire prior to the date above mentioned.

It is true that some forms of provision for the aid of those suffering from loss by fire & other calamitous causes apparently existed in very remote times, as the following quotation will proof:

"The earliest application of fire insurance known to us was in connection with communes of towns & districts. These communes flourished in Assyria & the East over 2500 years ago. Judges, priests, & magistrates were appointed for each town & district with power to levy contributions from each member of the commune to provide a fund against sudden calamities such as drought & fire.

If the judges were satisfied that the fire was accidental they empowered the magistrates to assess the members of the commune either in kind or in money, & in the event of any member being enable through poverty to meet his share of the contribution, the deficiency was made up from the common fund. These communes still exist in a modified form in China."

As early as 1240 a.d. the laws of Count Thomas of Flanders on condition that the members of a community as
a whole ought to make nice a loss which fire might cause to an individual, unless the incendiary who caused the fire could be discovered, in which case the loss was to be made nice from his property & they was to be banished. It will be noted that the designs outlined above contemplated an assessment by the state & that all property owners were protected. They may discover here, therefore, the beginning of state fire insurance, which will be later more fully described & which continues in Germany & elsewhere to this day on a immense scale.

Another process for protection & security against loss by fire, water, robbery, or other calamities, arose in the coursework of the Middle Ages in connection with the various Anglo-Saxon & French guilds, the members of which made regular contributions toward a common relief fund.

In 1609 a plan was suggested by of his subjects to Count Von Oldenberg, wherein it was proposed that they individually ought to consent to insure those of his subjects, who might so desire, against the loss of their houses by fire on an annual payment to him of a fee or premium of dollar for every hundred dollars of valuation.

This suggestion was declined by the Count, though not without some hesitation, &, though they suggested that such a plan might well be undertaken by a company of private individuals, no action on his suggestion seems to have been taken. This, as far as I have been able to discover, was the first suggestion ever made looking toward the formation of a company or association for fire insurance purposes only.