The marine insurance contract in Rouen under Ancient Law

Shipping insurance is the first known form of insurance. It was instituted at the end of the Middle Ages and spread to the whole of Europe in the sixteenth century. Rouen, as one of the largest commercial and maritime cities in the Kingdom of France, was the first and indeed the only city to be given a patent for insurance as early as 1556. It is therefore the ideal place in which to study such a contract in this country.
The fluctuating nature of insurance quickly pinpointed the problem of balancing the interests of the parties involved. On the one hand, the insured person needed to be able to benefit from guaranties allowing him to resort to insurance. Similarly, the insurer needed to be protected since he not only had the responsibility of the voyage, with the risks that that implied, but was also dependent on the honesty of the person insured. Together with their insurance agents, the merchants of Rouen therefore sought and adopted solutions to this problem. The Royal Ordinance of Shipping, in 1681, - the first French legislation on insurance - then endeavoured to unify the customs and uses carried out in the Kingdom of France. It offered various measures to develop this contract between the insured and the insurer. Maritime insurance, together with the many other sectors of law such as that of obligations, commercial law, maritime law, law pertaining to Exchange or to Societies, then evolved under the combined influence of the judiciary and of merchants, continually seeking a contractual balance.