General Average, Compulsory Contributions and Castilian Normative Practice in the Southern Low Countries (Sixteenth Century)

Springer eBooks, pp. 193–214

Abstract

Abstract This essay investigates the influence of the Castilian normative practice (in both legislation and legal practice) on the development of GA and other Averages in the Southern Low Countries in the sixteenth century. It argues that three important developments for risk and cost management were drawn from Castilian normative practice: first, the insurability of GA claims, as evidenced by the ledgers of the Antwerp-based Castilian insurer Juan Henriquez; second, the broadening of GA to include, for example, uninsurable costs, following lobbying by Castilian merchants; and third, the adoption by the Castilian and Biscayer nationes in Bruges of compulsory contributions to cover protection costs. Castilian normative practice therefore had a long-lasting and significant impact on the development of GA and other Averages, both in formal law and in mercantile practice.

Authors 1

1. Gijs Dreijer corresponding Aachen

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands