Economic and Environmental Conditions for the Diffusion of Insurance in Three Non-Euro-American Regions During the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Abstract
This paper discusses the macroeconomic and environmental conditions for the spread of insurance in three non-Western world regions (China, Middle East and sub-Sahara Africa). Focusing on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it examines the patterns of economic development relevant for the growth of insurance in these regions, and compares these against standard economic models of insurance diffusion. The paper argues that the growth of insurance must be explained by more than a simple linear relationship with the growth of per capita incomes. As well as income levels, other factors affecting insurance development include urbanization, taxation, savings rates, legal compulsion to insure, state provision of social security, state-owned insurance bodies and the presence of large infrastructural projects. The second part of the paper focuses on environmental conditions in these regions that drove insurance growth, including climate and geography, demography, drought and disease, building materials and risk-reduction technologies.
References
Anderson, D. 1984. “Depression, Dust Bowl, Demography, and Drought: The Colonial State and Soil Conservation in East Africa during the 1930s.” African Affairs 83: 321–43. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a097622.Suche in Google Scholar
Baker, A. M. 1987. “Liberalization of Trade in Services - The World Insurance Industry.” In The Emerging Service Economy, edited by O. Giarini, 193–211. Geneva: Pergamon Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Benjamin, D., and L. Brandt. 1997. “Land, Factor Markets, and Inequality in Rural China: Historical Evidence.” Explorations in Economic History 34: 460–94. https://doi.org/10.1006/exeh.1997.0683.Suche in Google Scholar
Bickers, R. 2010. “Shanghailanders and Others: British Communities in China 1843–1957.” In Settlers and Expatriates: Britons Over the Seas, edited by R. Bickers. Oxford: Oxford University Press. tables 10.2, 10.4.Suche in Google Scholar
CAEF Archives Paris. 1970. B0064208/1 Documents Statistiques, Net Losses for Life Insurance in French West Africa in 1970.Suche in Google Scholar
Central Bank of Kenya. 1970. Monetary and Financial Developments. Nairobi: The Annual CBK Bulletin.Suche in Google Scholar
Central Bank of Kenya. 1974. Monetary and Financial Developments. Nairobi: The Annual CBK Bulletin.Suche in Google Scholar
Chan, C. S.-C. 2012. Marketing Death: Culture and the Making of Life Insurance in China. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
China Maritime Customs Service. 1913. “Statistical Series No.6.” In Decennial Reports on the Trade, Industries, etc., of the Ports Open to Foreign Commerce, and the Condition and Development of the Treaty Port Provinces, 1902–1911. Appendix VI, Population Table, Vol. 2, 354–5. Shanghai. Third Issue.Suche in Google Scholar
China Maritime Customs Service. 1918. “Statistical Series Nos 3 to 5.” In Returns of Trade and Trade Reports 1917, Part I, 85. Shanghai.Suche in Google Scholar
Crowe, R. 1980. “Crop Insurance.” In 7th African Insurance Conference, 11–15 February 1980.Suche in Google Scholar
Daston, L. J. 1987. “The Domestication of Risk: Mathematical Probability and Insurance 1650–1830.” In The Probabilistic Revolution, Volume 1: Ideas in History, edited by L. Krüger, L. J. Daston, and M. Heidelberger, 237–60. Cambridge: MIT Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Dung, Y. 1928. “Life Insurance in China: A Study of the Factors Hindering its Development.” PhD thesis, University of Pennsylvania.Suche in Google Scholar
East African Statistical Department. 1961. East Africa Insurance Statistics 1950–1958. Nairobi.Suche in Google Scholar
East African Statistical Department. 1964. East Africa Insurance Statistics 1959–1964. Nairobi.Suche in Google Scholar
Elvin, M. 1973. The Pattern of the Chinese Past. Stanford.Suche in Google Scholar
Enz, R. 2000. “The S-Curve Relation between Per-Capita Income and Insurance Penetration.” The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance 25: 396–406. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-0440.00072.Suche in Google Scholar
Fairbank, J. K., and K.-C. Liu. 1980. “Introduction.” In The Cambridge History of China, Volume 11 Late Chi’ing, 1800-1911, Part 2, edited by J. K. Fairbank, and K.-C. Liu. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CHOL9780521220293Suche in Google Scholar
Falciglia, A. 1980. “The Demand for Non-Life Insurance: A Consumption-Oriented Model.” The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance 5: 45–53. https://doi.org/10.1057/gpp.1980.14.Suche in Google Scholar
Frenz, M. 2008. “Global Goans. Migration Movements and Identity in a Historical Perspective.” Lusotopie XV (1): 183–202. https://doi.org/10.1163/17683084-01501014.Suche in Google Scholar
Ghana Insurance Corporation. 1956. “Corporate Documents.” In Box 2 Folder 1 - Report to Shareholders, August 15, 1956, vol. 195. MA: New York Public Library.Suche in Google Scholar
Ghana Insurance Corporation. 1987. State Insurance Corporation at 25 Years. Lagos.Suche in Google Scholar
Greenberg, M. 1951. British Trade and the Opening of China 1800–42. Cambridge.Suche in Google Scholar
Harrison, J. H. 1959. “Kenya-White Highlands.” In Motion made by Colonel J. H. Harrison during UK Parliamentary Session, 30 October 1959, Vol. 594, 463–74. London: Hansard.Suche in Google Scholar
Hsiao, L.-l. 1974. China’s Foreign Trade Statistics, 1864–1949. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.10.1353/book75525Suche in Google Scholar
Iliffe, J. 1979. A Modern History of Tanganyika. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511584114Suche in Google Scholar
Issa, A. 2011. “Malaria and Public Health Measures in Colonial Urban Zanzibar, 1900–1956.” Hygiea Internationalis: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the History of Public Health 10: 35–51. https://doi.org/10.3384/hygiea.1403-8668.1110235.Suche in Google Scholar
Issawi, C. 1980. The Economic History of Turkey 1800–1914. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Jitschin, A. 2010. “From Economic to Political Reality: Forming a Nationalized Indian Life Assurance Market.” In The Development of International Insurance, edited by R. Pearson, 133–44. London: Pickering and Chatto.Suche in Google Scholar
Kenya National Archives and Documentation, Service. 1929. File No. CO533/393, Telegram from Crown Agents for Colonies To Governor. Nairobi (dated June 24, 1929).Suche in Google Scholar
Kenya National Archives and Documentation Service. 1930a. File No. CO533/393, Telegram Dated 21 January 1930. London: The East African Department, Kenya to Colonial Office.Suche in Google Scholar
Kenya National Archives and Documentation Service 1930b. File No. CO533/393, Locust Menace Crop Insurance X 1930.Suche in Google Scholar
Kenya National Archives and Documentation Service. 1952. File No. DC/5/2/1952. Asians Civil Services.Suche in Google Scholar
Kimambo, N., and H. Maddox. 2017. A New History of Tanzania. Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota Publishers.Suche in Google Scholar
Kjekshus, H. 1977. Ecology Control and Economic Development in East African History: The Case of Tanganyika 1840–1940. London and Berkeley.10.1525/9780520347557Suche in Google Scholar
Lowenstein, M. 2020. “The China United Assurance Society and the Making of Chinese Life Insurance, 1912–1949.” Enterprise and Society 21: 1–35. https://doi.org/10.1017/eso.2019.48.Suche in Google Scholar
Loxley, J. 1966. “Financial Intermediaries and their Role in East Africa.” In Presented during the University of East Africa Social Science Conference. Nairobi. unpublished paper.Suche in Google Scholar
Loxley, J. 1979. “The Monetary System of Tanzania Since 1967: Progress, Problems, and Proposals.” In Papers on the Political Economy of Tanzania, edited by K. K. Kim, R. B. Mabele, and M. J. Schultheis. Nairobi.Suche in Google Scholar
Maddison, A. 2006. The World Economy Vol. 2 - Historical Statistics. Paris: OECD.10.1787/9789264022621-enSuche in Google Scholar
Mbilinyi, S. 1996. Minister’s Speech When Presenting the Bill for Insurance Act (dated November 4, 1996).Suche in Google Scholar
Millo, G. 2020. “The S-Curve and Reality.” In Assicurazioni Generali Group Insurance Research Working Paper WP1/16. consulted online (accessed August 6, 2020).Suche in Google Scholar
Morse, H. B. 1926. The Chronicles of the East India Company Trading to China 1635–1834, Vol. 3, 61–3. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Moss, M. 2000. Standard Life 1825-2000: The Building of Europe’s Largest Mutual Life Company. Edinburgh and London: Mainstream Publishing.Suche in Google Scholar
National Insurance Corporation of Tanzania. 1971. Insurance Industry in Tanzania: 10 Years of Independence Anniversary. Dar es Salaam.Suche in Google Scholar
National Insurance Corporation of Tanzania. 1970 and 1977. Annual Reports. Dar es Salaam.Suche in Google Scholar
National Insurance Corporation of Tanzania. 1980. Annual Report. Dar es Salaam.Suche in Google Scholar
Official Gazette. 1929. The Official Gazette of the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya (Special Issue), vol. XXXI. Nairobi (dated November 22, 1929).Suche in Google Scholar
Ottoman Bank. 1942. Sigorta Rehberi. Istanbul: Ottoman Bank.Suche in Google Scholar
Pamuk, Ş. 2018. Uneven Centuries: Economic Development of Turkey since 1820. Princeton: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9780691184982Suche in Google Scholar
Pearson, R. 2004. Insuring The Industrial Revolution: Fire Insurance in Great Britain, 1700–1850. Aldershot: Ashgate.Suche in Google Scholar
Republic of Ghana. 1963. Parliamentary Debates (dated October 21, 1963).Suche in Google Scholar
Richardson, P. 1999. Economic Change in China c. 1800–1950. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139171229Suche in Google Scholar
Rodney, W. 1972. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Washington DC: Howard University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Rosenthal, J.-L., and R. Bin Wong. 2011. Before and Beyond Divergence: The Politics of Economic Change in China and Europe. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.10.4159/harvard.9780674061293Suche in Google Scholar
Ryan, R. J. 1983. “A History of the Norwich Union Fire and Life Insurance Societies from 1797 to 1914.” PhD thesis, University of East Anglia.Suche in Google Scholar
Shiue, C. H. 2000. “Grain Trade and Storage in Late Imperial China.” The Journal of Economic History 60: 511–5. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022050700250237.Suche in Google Scholar
Shiue, C. H. 2004. “Local Granaries and Central Government Disaster Relief: Moral Hazard and Intergovernmental Finance in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century China.” The Journal of Economic History 64: 100–24. https://doi.org/10.1017/s002205070400261x.Suche in Google Scholar
Smith, P. F. 1971. Economics of Financial Institutions and Markets. Homewood.10.2307/2325783Suche in Google Scholar
South Centre. 1998. Towards an Economic Platform for the South. Geneva.Suche in Google Scholar
Standard Life Archive. 1855. SL/05/1/1/15, Reports on the Climates of Australia and Shanghai.Suche in Google Scholar
Swiss Re. 1999. Sigma no. 5. Zurich: Swiss Re.Suche in Google Scholar
Swiss Re. 2015. Sigma no. 4. Zurich: Swiss Re.Suche in Google Scholar
Tanzania National Archive. 1939a. File 588/30, Extract from Minutes of the First Meeting of the Reconstructed Railway Advisory Council Held on 26th May 1939. Department of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry Mpwapwa.Suche in Google Scholar
Tanzania National Archive. 1939b. File 20/36A, Report from Colonial Provincial Commissioner (dated August 11, 1939).Suche in Google Scholar
Tanzania National Archive. 1944a. File 204, Letter from Sir Wilfrid Jackson to Colonial Office on ‘Establishment of Social Security Scheme in Tanganyika Territory’ (dated October 13, 1944).Suche in Google Scholar
Tanzania National Archive. 1944b. File 32743 G.T.C Telegram, Secretary of the State`s Comment on Memorandum for “Minimum Standards for Social Policy in Dependent Territories” (dated December 21, 1944).Suche in Google Scholar
Tanzania National Archive. 1948. Acc. 32781 Vol. II, Circular To all Colonies (dated August 15, 1948).Suche in Google Scholar
Throup, D. W. 1988. Economic and Social Origins of Mau Mau. Athens: Ohio University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
Tignor, R. L. 2016. Capitalism and Nationalism at the End of Empire: State and Business in Decolonizing Egypt, Nigeria, and Kenya, 1945–1963. Princeton: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9781400873005Suche in Google Scholar
Trebilcock, C. 1998. Phoenix Assurance and the Development of British Insurance, Vol. 2. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
UK High Commission. 1949. Circular No. 37 (dated May 30, 1949).10.1080/0005772X.1949.11096598Suche in Google Scholar
UK National Archives. 1947/8. CO 554/160/4, Correspondence Between W. Elders & Sons Ltd and the Secretariat of State for the Colonies 1947/1948.Suche in Google Scholar
Verhoef, G. 2018. The Power of Your Life: The Sanlam Century of Insurance Empowerment, 1918-2018. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/oso/9780198817758.001.0001Suche in Google Scholar
Verhoef, G. 2021. “Insurance and Wealth: The Historical Trajectory of Changing Markets and Strategies in Insurance.” In Maritime Risk Management: Essays on the History of Marine Insurance, General Average and Sea Loan, edited by P. Hellwege, and G. Rossi, 17–34. Berlin: Duncker and Humblot.Suche in Google Scholar
Wallbank, T. W. 1938. “British Colonial Policy and Native Education in Kenya.” The Journal of Negro Education 7: 521–32. https://doi.org/10.2307/2291799.Suche in Google Scholar
Wasow, B. 1974. The Mathematical Theory of Insurance. Lexington: Heath.Suche in Google Scholar
Wasow, B. 1986. “Determinants of Insurance Penetration: A Cross Country Analysis.” In The Insurance Industry in Economic Development, edited by B. Wasow, and R. D. Hill, 160–76. New York: New York University Press.Suche in Google Scholar
World Bank. 1980. ‘Accelerated Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Agenda for Action’; Statistics appendix.Suche in Google Scholar
Yi, Li 2008. “Beyond Restoration: Problems of Imperial Power in the 1870 Famine Relief Efforts in Zhili.” Journal of Modern Chinese History 2: 41–58. https://doi.org/10.1080/17535650802048082.Suche in Google Scholar
Zaman, M. A., and M. Merkonnen. 1993. Case Studies on Rural Insurance in Africa. Addis Ababa: Joint ECA/FAO Agriculture Division.Suche in Google Scholar
Zhang, Li 2014. “Net Income Per Capita in Rural Wuxi 1840s-1940s.” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 57: 291–325. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685209-12341350.Suche in Google Scholar
Zwierlein, C. 2017. “Perceiving Urban Fire Regimes in Europe and China (1830 to 1870): British Fire Insurance Business and the Sudden Challenge of Globalisation.” In Historical Disaster Experiences: Towards a Comparative and Transcultural History of Disasters across Asia and Europe, edited by G. Jasper Schenk, 327–52. Berlin: Springer Verlag.10.1007/978-3-319-49163-9_16Suche in Google Scholar
© 2023 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Harold D. Skipper Award-winning Paper of the 2022 Asia-Pacific Risk and Insurance Association Conference in Shanghai, China
- The Impact of Product-Dependent Policyholder Risk Sensitivities in Life Insurance: Insights from Experiments and Model-Based Simulation Analyses
- 2022 Insurance History Conference in Basel, Switzerland
- Special Issue: History of Insurance in a Global Perspective: A Novel Research Agenda
- Economic and Environmental Conditions for the Diffusion of Insurance in Three Non-Euro-American Regions During the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
- Marine Insurance in Early Modern Genoa (1564–1571): A Risk-Shifting or Risk-Sharing Tool?
- Who Do You Trust? Trust and Insurance Through Africa’s Past and Future
- The Risk of Natural Catastrophe in Early America: Perspectives from the Phoenix Assurance Company London and Nascent US Insurers
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Harold D. Skipper Award-winning Paper of the 2022 Asia-Pacific Risk and Insurance Association Conference in Shanghai, China
- The Impact of Product-Dependent Policyholder Risk Sensitivities in Life Insurance: Insights from Experiments and Model-Based Simulation Analyses
- 2022 Insurance History Conference in Basel, Switzerland
- Special Issue: History of Insurance in a Global Perspective: A Novel Research Agenda
- Economic and Environmental Conditions for the Diffusion of Insurance in Three Non-Euro-American Regions During the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
- Marine Insurance in Early Modern Genoa (1564–1571): A Risk-Shifting or Risk-Sharing Tool?
- Who Do You Trust? Trust and Insurance Through Africa’s Past and Future
- The Risk of Natural Catastrophe in Early America: Perspectives from the Phoenix Assurance Company London and Nascent US Insurers