France
Data from the French source material
See the User Guide Read the Case Studies View all French Voyages
The French Sources
This database gives a window into the underwriting practices of two royal underwriting institutions in Paris under Louis XIV. Like Lloyd’s coffeehouse in London, the Royal Insurance Chamber in Paris (1668-86) was a private underwriting institution where individual insurers met to underwrite voyages spanning the globe. Drawing from the Chamber’s extensive registers, this database documents over 4000 insurance policies, comprising all those signed in the Chamber in the years 1668 to 1672. These offer an extraordinary window into the practice of marine insurance at the heart of the Sun King’s personal rule.
The Royal Insurance Company (1686-c.1710) was the first chartered company in the history of marine insurance. Every policy from 1686 to 1698 – totalling over 3400 – is compiled in this database.
These datasets offer an extraordinary window into the practice of marine insurance at the heart of the Sun King’s personal rule. Users interested in finding out more about the Chamber and the Company can read Lewis Wade’s Privilege, Economy and State in Old Regime France: Marine Insurance, War and the Atlantic Empire for free here.
Table: The totality of the Royal Insurance Chamber’s underwriting in the years 1668 to 1672, in livres tournois.
| Year | Total underwritten | Number of policies | Gross premium income (range) | Recorded losses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1668 | 998,130 | 364 | 67,454 | 5600 |
| 1669 | 1,824,250 | 523 | 98,828 | 11,400 |
| 1670 | 3,023,102 | 727 | 174,175 | 73,500 |
| 1671 | 4,726,072 | 977 | ≥ 265,000 ≤ 265,260 |
131,200 |
| 1672 | 6,086,089 | 1563 | ≥ 582,950 ≤ 638,208 |
614,258 |
| Total | 16,657,643 | 4154 | ≥ 1,188,408 ≤ 1,243,926 |
835,958 |
Case Studies
Elisabeth Hélissant - A leading female underwriter
In May 1668, Elisabeth Hélissant’s husband died. By the end of the month, she had started underwriting, and quickly became one of the Chamber’s leading insurers. See for yourself how her global portfolio developed over time – and how it fell apart with the onset of the Dutch War in 1672. You can find out more about her and the Chamber’s other female underwriters in this article.
Click here for a list of all the voyages Elisabeth Hélissant was involved in.
The King of Sweden
An illustrious client
The Chamber gave coverage for clients across Europe. Amongst them was Charles XI, King of Sweden. This policy, negotiated for him by a Parisian intermediary in the midst of the Dutch War, covered merchandise loaded on the Joannesborg for a voyage from Le Havre to Stockholm.
The Spanish silver fleet
Illicit inter-imperial commerce
Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV’s leading minister, encouraged French merchants in Cádiz to engage illicitly in the American silver trade, and the Chamber supported these ventures by underwriting them. In this example, the Chamber insured an anonymous merchant’s share in New World silver and cochineal.
The Atlantic slave trade
At the heart of the state
The French state was one of several across Europe in supporting the Atlantic slave trade. The Chamber insured one such slave voyage, whose backers had intimate ties to Jean-Baptiste Colbert. This was a standard triangular voyage from Le Havre to Guinea, the Caribbean and back to Le Havre. The policy included coverage on the slaves to be loaded in Guinea, treating them as ‘merchandise’ legally analogous to livestock.
This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 724544
Image Acknowledgements
Pieter Mulier A Ship Wrecked in a Storm off a Rocky Coast [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons