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Insuring the Transatlantic Slave Trade

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2019

Robin Pearson  and
David Richardson
Robin Pearson
Affiliation:
Robin Pearson is Professor, Business School, University of Hull, Cottingham Road, Hull HU6 7RX, United Kingdom. E-mail: r.pearson@hull.ac.uk.
David Richardson
Affiliation:
David Richardson is Professor, Wilberforce Institute, University of Hull, 27 High Street, Hull HU1 1NE, United Kingdom. E-mail: p.d.richardson@hull.ac.uk.
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Abstract

One important, but overlooked, risk mitigation device that facilitated the growth of the slave trade in the eighteenth century was the increasing availability of insurance for ships and their human cargoes. In this article we explore, for the first time, the relative cost of insurance for British slave traders, the underlying processes by which this key aspect of the business of slavery was conducted, and the factors behind price and other changes over time. Comparisons are also drawn with the transatlantic slave trades of other nations. As well as analyzing the business of underwriting slave voyages, we have two other objectives. First, we explore the meaning of slave insurance from the perspective of those directly involved in the trade. Was it about insuring lives or goods? Second, we provide new estimates of the importance of the slave trade to U.K. marine insurance. Did the former drive the growth of the latter, as Joseph Inikori has claimed?

Type
Article
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 79 , Issue 2 , June 2019 , pp. 417 - 446
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2019 

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Footnotes

Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the Universities of Nottingham and Umeå. We are most grateful to the participants, as well as to the Editor of this Journal and to two anonymous referees, for their insightful comments.

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