EARLY MODERN ATLANTIC TRADE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF MARITIME INSURANCE TO 1630

Ebert argues that colonial trade tended to lead to accelerated state involvement in the activities of the merchants involved, and consequently spawned an evolving institutional framework. He suggests that the shift in the use of insurance was a noticeable and accelerating trend in the period up to 1630, which was the formative phase of Atlantic trade since it fell chronologically before the widespread creation of chartered joint-stock companies in a variety of European states. Individualist forms of merchant organization did not entirely supplant collectivist methodology, neither in the early modern period nor in people own time. But the maritime insurance practices described here were precursors of modern financial mechanisms. State-sponsored institutions for managing risk are also dominant features of modern capitalism. They are indispensable supports for the proliferation of individualist merchant practices that are characteristic in developed countries today.