Insurance History

Several days ago, I read a little history about insurance which aroused my great interests.

Guess what, the earliest insurance concept in China should be able to trace back to the industry of Escort Agency (镖局). In ancient China, people created Escort Agency so as to avoid natural disaster, contrived incident, etc.

The goods that merchants entrusted to Escort Agency were called "biao ma" in Chinese, which is equivalent to subject-matter insured.The goods shall be checked by Escort Agency who confirmed "biao li" of the goods, according to different grade. "biao li” is commonly called premium rate nowadays. At last, Escort Agency would charged and issued "biao dan" (insurance policy) which based on the premium rate.

Sometimes, we have to admire ancient people' wisdom, and I think that this is the "sometimes".

We usually take for granted that the idea of modern society merely originates from modern people, however, we seldom retrospect that modern concept is always shaped by ancient wisdom. Maybe, it's because we actually live in the same circumstances and face the similar difficulties.

In economics, we can say that where are the needs, there is a market.

What's more, Escort Agency's most businesses were from wealthy traders, bandits, ect. Of course, there were also Robin Hood in the bandits who robbed the rich to help the poor. Coincidently, we have to admit that people who benefit most from insurance are just wealthy people. Well, please don't get me wrong.I say this not meaning that rich people are bad, greedy or cruel. I just want to see through the reality:

The real rich people usually can gain more information on finance and they can utilize the financial tools to protect their lives, families, corporations and their wealth.

And yet, I also believe that we common people also have the ability and opportunity to achieve our goals as if we keep learning and get well prepared.

Who knows what wind may blow to an ordinary soul.

Give a salute to the ancestor and the history.