Discussion Paper 001
A sector 'most beneficial to commerce': Marine insurance companies in nineteenth-century Greek port cities
Max Weber Fellow
European University Institute
This paper explores the development of a novel form of entrepreneurial activity, the marine insurance sector in the Ionian Islands during the period of British rule (1815-1864) and compares it with the insurance sector of other Greek port towns in order to provide an example of capital accumulation and investment in the nineteenth-century Greek economy. The main issues explored in the paper are: the amount of capital invested; the structural organization of the insurance companies and the novel entrepreneurial strategies adopted. The different institutional framework, business networks between ports in the case of the Patras and Ionian companies and the fluctuating international economy determined the viability and duration of the sector in each town.
Athanasios (Sakis) Gekas is a Max Weber post-doctoral Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence. His research interests revolve around the economic and social history of ports in the Ionian Islands and the Eastern Mediterranean.
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