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The history of insurance consisted of the development of the modern business of insurance against risks, especially regarding cargo, property, death, automobile accidents, and medical treatment. The industry helps to eliminate risks (as when fire insurance companies demand the implementation of safe practices and the installation of hydrants), spreads risks from the individual to the larger community, and provides an important source of long-term finance for both the public and private sectors. The insurance industry is generally profitable and provides attractive employment opportunities for white collar workers. ==Ancient world== In some sense, we can say that insurance dates back to early human society. We know of two types of economies in human societies: natural or non-monetary economies (using barter and trade with no centralized nor standardized set of financial instruments) and monetary economies (with markets, currency, financial instruments and so on). Insurance in the former case entails agreements of mutual aid. If one family's house gets destroyed, the neighbours are committed to help rebuild it. Granaries embodied another early form of insurance to indemnify against famines. These types of insurance have survived to the present day in countries or areas where a modern money economy with its financial instruments is not widespread. The first methods of transferring or distributing risk in a monetary economy, were practised by Chinese and Babylonian traders in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC, respectively.〔See, e.g., Vaughan, E. J., 1997, ''Risk Management'', New York: Wiley.〕 Chinese merchants travelling treacherous river rapids would redistribute their wares across many vessels to limit the loss due to any single vessel's capsizing. The Babylonians developed a system which was recorded in the famous Code of Hammurabi, c. 1750 BC, and practised by early Mediterranean sailing merchants. If a merchant received a loan to fund his shipment, he would pay the lender an additional sum in exchange for the lender's guarantee to cancel the loan should the shipment be stolen or lost at sea. Achaemenian monarchs in Ancient Persia were presented with annual gifts from the various ethnic groups under their control. This would function as an early form of political insurance, and officially bound the Persian monarch to protect the group from harm. At some point in the 1st millennium BC, the inhabitants of Rhodes created the 'general average'. This allowed groups of merchants to pay to insure their goods being shipped together. The collected premiums would be used to reimburse any merchant whose goods were jettisoned during transport, whether to storm or sinkage. The ancient Athenian "maritime loan" advanced money for voyages with repayment being cancelled if the ship was lost. In the 4th century BC, rates for the loans differed according to safe or dangerous times of year, implying an intuitive pricing of risk with an effect similar to insurance.〔Franklin, J., 2001, ''The Science of Conjecture: Evidence and Probability Before Pascal'', Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 259.〕 The Greeks and Romans introduced the origins of health and life insurance c. 600 BC when they created guilds called "benevolent societies" which cared for the families of deceased members, as well as paying funeral expenses of members. Guilds in the Middle Ages served a similar purpose. The Jewish Talmud also deals with several aspects of insuring goods. Before insurance was established in the late 17th century, "friendly societies" existed in England, in which people donated amounts of money to a general sum that could be used for emergencies. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of insurance」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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