The idea of shared risk is the foundation of all types of insurance. In one of
the earliest examples of shared risk, ancient Chinese traders would distribute
their cargo throughout many different oceangoing vessels to limit the
incurred losses if any single one of them capsized. Later, the Babylonians
enacted the first known written laws in the Code of Hammurabi (circa
1750 B.C.), which, among its many provisions, allowed lenders to charge
additional costs to cancel loans for which the collateral was lost or stolen.
Early insurance was principally limited to the extreme risks associated
with ships and the goods they transported on the high seas. But even in
ancient Rome, records exist to show that there were burial societies that
paid for funeral costs of their members out of the dues they were assessed.
The Achaemenid Empire in ancient Persia (circa 550–330 B.C.) was the first
to offer individuals insurance for their general interests. Each year citizens
presented the ruler with a gift. If it was worth more than 10,000 gold coins,
the gift and the giver were recorded in a ledger. If the gift giver later needed
money for an investment, for a child’s wedding or another personal venture,
the government would give him or her twice the amount of the recorded
gift.