Widows and the History of Insurance
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Hellwege, P. (Ed.) (2021). Widows and the History of Insurance. Duncker & Humblot. https://doi.org/10.3790/978-3-428-58300-3
Hellwege, Phillip. Widows and the History of Insurance. Duncker & Humblot, 2021. Book. https://doi.org/10.3790/978-3-428-58300-3
Hellwege, P (ed.) (2021): Widows and the History of Insurance, Duncker & Humblot, [online] https://doi.org/10.3790/978-3-428-58300-3
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Widows and the History of Insurance
Editors: Hellwege, Phillip
(2021)
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About The Author
Prof. Dr. Phillip Hellwege M.Jur. (Oxford) ist seit 2010 Inhaber des Lehrstuhls für Bürgerliches Recht, Wirtschaftsrecht und Rechtsgeschichte an der Universität Augsburg. Zuvor war er von 2003 bis 2010 wissenschaftlicher Referent am Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht in Hamburg. 2015 erhielt er einen Consolidator Grant des European Research Council (ERC) für ein auf fünf Jahre angelegtes Projekt zur vergleichenden Geschichte des Versicherungsrechts in Europa. Seine Forschungsschwerpunkte liegen im Bürgerlichen Recht, im Europäischen Privatrecht, in der Historischen Rechtsvergleichung sowie in der Geschichte des Wirtschaftsrechts und des Versicherungsrechts.Abstract
The aim of the present volume is to analyse the genesis of modern life insurance by focusing on one specific purpose which life insurance serves: seeking provision for widowhood. This focus follows from the understanding that the evolution of life insurance can only be understood if its genesis is embedded in the history of the many competing and often insufficient strategies for the support of widows and the many strategies which widows employed to support themselves. This general framework was different across Europe. By contrast, the fact that life insurance is said to have been banned in some European countries, the different advancement in actuarial science, and the distribution of wealth cannot fully explain the late arrival of modern life insurance in some European countries. Finally, the approach taken in this volume allows to compare English life insurance products to traditional Continental European pension products.
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Table of Contents | 7 | ||
| Chapter 1: Introduction | 9 | ||
| Chapter 2: Inheritance, Charity, and Insurance in the Fortunes of English Widows, 1500–1800 | 15 | ||
| A. Introduction | 15 | ||
| B. Property and the widow | 15 | ||
| C. Poor relief and the widow | 20 | ||
| D. Insurance and the widow | 24 | ||
| Chapter 3: Provisions and Strategies for Widows in the Early Modern Dutch Republic | 33 | ||
| A. Widows as heirs | 34 | ||
| I. Matrimonial property law | 34 | ||
| II. Prenuptial contracts and testaments | 37 | ||
| III. Remarriage | 38 | ||
| B. Widows as partners in private partnerships | 39 | ||
| C. Non-guild widow funds | 43 | ||
| D. Conclusion | 45 | ||
| Chapter 4: Germany | 47 | ||
| A. Introduction | 48 | ||
| B. Family law and the law of succession | 50 | ||
| C. Poor relief | 54 | ||
| D. Non-financial support and non-contribution-based financial support | 55 | ||
| I. The crafts: allowing widows to continue their deceased husband’s business | 55 | ||
| II. The Protestant clergy: a multitude of approaches to support widows of Protestant pastors | 57 | ||
| III. Conclusion | 58 | ||
| E. Contribution-based financial support | 58 | ||
| I. The crafts: contribution-based financial support offered by guilds being the exception | 59 | ||
| II. The mining sector: contribution-based financial support offered by miners’ guilds | 60 | ||
| III. Widows’ and orphans’ assurances | 62 | ||
| IV. Life annuities, tontines, and pension funds | 69 | ||
| V. Ransom insurance and life insurance in maritime context | 73 | ||
| F. Germany’s first ‘modern’ life insurance | 74 | ||
| I. Four misconceptions about Germany’s first ‘modern’ life insurance | 75 | ||
| 1. The first life insurance products? | 75 | ||
| 2. Life insurance having been banned in Germany? | 75 | ||
| 3. The first products striving for actuarial soundness? | 78 | ||
| 4. A single life insurance product? | 78 | ||
| II. Life insurance of the eighteenth and the nineteenth century compared: the 1806 Hamburg Life Insurance Society | 78 | ||
| 1. From a niche product to a core product | 79 | ||
| 2. Life insurance for a whole life | 79 | ||
| 3. Offering more flexibility to the insured | 80 | ||
| 4. Using exact premium tables | 81 | ||
| 5. The individual risk model, the collective risk model, and hybrid products | 82 | ||
| 6. The individual risk model as an ‘invasive species’ on the German market | 83 | ||
| III. The 1854 Hamburg Seafarers’ Pension Fund | 84 | ||
| IV. The 1827 Gotha Life Insurance Bank and the 1828 Lübeck Life Insurance Company | 85 | ||
| V. Autonomous development or reception from England? | 86 | ||
| G. A legal analysis of Germany’s first‘modern’ life insurance | 87 | ||
| I. Insurable interest | 88 | ||
| II. Duty of disclosure | 89 | ||
| III. Breach of the duty of disclosure | 91 | ||
| IV. Increase of risk | 91 | ||
| V. Default of premium payment | 92 | ||
| VI. Conclusion | 93 | ||
| H. Conclusion | 93 | ||
| Chapter 5: Provision for Widows in Scandinavia | 95 | ||
| A. Introduction | 95 | ||
| B. Support for widows before and besides insurance | 97 | ||
| C. Funds for widows’ pensions | 99 | ||
| I. Denmark-Norway | 99 | ||
| 1. Early funds for priests’ widows | 99 | ||
| 2. Funds for the widows of priests, civil servants and burghers in the eighteenth century | 101 | ||
| 3. Funds for the widows of fishermen and miners | 103 | ||
| 4. State-run funds | 105 | ||
| 5. Calculating the contributions and pensions | 106 | ||
| II. Sweden-Finland | 108 | ||
| 1. Funds for the widows of priests, civil servants, and military officers | 108 | ||
| 2. Calculating the contributions and pensions | 109 | ||
| III. Transfer of ideas | 110 | ||
| D. State control, the welfare state, and the protection of rights | 111 | ||
| I. Learning from experience and making better calculations | 111 | ||
| 1. A Swedish-Danish common base for calculations | 111 | ||
| 2. Sweden-Finland | 112 | ||
| 3. Denmark-Norway | 113 | ||
| II. State supervision | 114 | ||
| III. The welfare state | 114 | ||
| IV. Pension rights as contractual rights | 115 | ||
| E. Concluding comments | 117 | ||
| Chapter 6: Provision for Widows in Italy | 119 | ||
| A. The absence of long-term life insurance productsuntil the nineteenth century | 120 | ||
| B. Guilds and other professional associations | 123 | ||
| I. A seventeenth-century example from Naples | 124 | ||
| II. Eighteenth-century examples | 125 | ||
| C. Dowries, the law of succession, and last wills | 126 | ||
| I. Dowries | 126 | ||
| 1. The dowry’s function | 127 | ||
| 2. Restricting the husband’s power over the dowry and measures for protecting the wife’s interests | 127 | ||
| 3. Means of providing dowries | 128 | ||
| II. Law of succession | 131 | ||
| III. Last wills | 132 | ||
| IV. Conclusion | 133 | ||
| D. Charity | 133 | ||
| E. Conclusion | 135 | ||
| Chapter 7: Social Inequality, Work, and Widow Welfare Systems in Early Modern Spain | 137 | ||
| A. Widowhood in eighteenth-century Spain | 138 | ||
| B. Dowries, matrimonial property regimes, and succession: the treatment of widows in the peninsular legal systems | 139 | ||
| C. Widowhood, inequality, and survival strategies | 142 | ||
| D. Widowhood and employment in urban areas | 145 | ||
| E. Widowhood and welfare schemes | 147 | ||
| I. Military montepíos | 147 | ||
| II. Confraternities and montepíos in the craft sector | 149 | ||
| III. Confraternities in the maritime sector | 151 | ||
| IV. Welfare schemes organized by women for women: the hermandades femeninas de socorro | 152 | ||
| F. Conclusions | 154 | ||
| Chapter 8: Comparative Analysis | 157 | ||
| A. Why did ‘modern’ life insurance appear in England earlier than in other European countries? | 158 | ||
| I. Work as an insufficient strategy for widows to provide for themselves | 159 | ||
| II. Remarriage as an insufficient strategy for widows | 159 | ||
| III. Matrimonial property regimes, law of succession, and family solidarity providing insufficient security to widows | 160 | ||
| IV. Provisional conclusion | 160 | ||
| V. Life insurance being banned in continental Europe? | 161 | ||
| VI. Distribution of wealth? | 162 | ||
| VII. The advancement of actuarial science? | 162 | ||
| VIII. The availability of alternative products | 163 | ||
| B. What was then novel about the ‘modern’ life insurance product? | 164 | ||
| C. And what about the law? | 165 | ||
| List of Contributors | 167 | ||
| Index | 169 |