Crossing the Bar: The Legal Activities of the British Merchant-Insurer Class, 1688–1800

My project is an examination of how eighteenth-century British merchant-insurers tailored the English law to their own financial benefit. Merchant-insurers—merchants who underwrote other merchants' ships—amassed enormous wealth during this era. However, given the risky nature of their investments, they realized they needed protection. To safeguard their profits, merchant-insurers initiated a campaign to influence English law. They found allies in Parliament and in the courts, rallied to prevent their industry from being taken over by a joint-stock monopoly, and successfully reframed their industry as being integrated with British imperial interests. In so doing, British merchant-insurers lessened the risk of their policies while maintaining much of the benefits of their prior self-governance.