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The Role Of Insurance In The 18th Century

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The insurance industry provides further evidence of the higher value that capitalism placed on material wealth than human suffering. In the 18th century, insurance companies, such as Lloyds of London, offered insurance coverage to slave traders for the loss of their slaves on the route from Africa to the New World. Most shocking, however, were the many instances of insurance fraud that occurred. In these cases, slave owners caused the deliberate deaths of slaves in order to make claims to the insurance companies for which they received cash as compensation. . In a case study involving the slave ship “Zong,” the captain of the trading vessel threw 132 slaves overboard his ship and demanded he receive payment for his lost “property”. After the insurance company refused to pay his claims for lost “property,” he sued the insurers in an English court. Lord William Murray of Mansfield, the Chief Justice of England, gave judgment to the captain. Lord Murray indicated that their deaths were covered under the insurance policies, since they resulted from “perils of sea”. Lord Murray required the insurance company to pay thirty pounds for each …show more content…

Slavery was a low risk, high reward practice. It made it easy for slave owners to pursue their own worst material instincts. Slavery offered middle class Englishmen the hope that they could move up the social ladder and rise above their historical social class. As a result, a majority of the English middle class and even some from lower economic classes invested heavily in the slave trade, hoping that it would improve their economic interests. The moral implications of the slave trade were not relevant to these Englishmen. The possibility of instant riches caused investors to look only after themselves. People involved in the slave trade acted in a completely self-interested manner and

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