The ancient Greeks

The ancient Greeks had marine loans. Money was advanced on a ship or cargo, to be repaid with large interest if the voyage prospers, but not repaid at all if the ship is lost, the rate of interest being made high enough to pay not only for the use of the capital but for the risk of losing it (fully described by Demosthenes). Loans of this character have ever since been common in maritime lands, under the name of bottomry and respondentia bonds.[5]

The direct insurance of sea-risks for a premium paid independently of loans began, as far as is known, in Belgium about A.D. 1300.[5]

Separate insurance contracts (i.e., insurance policies not bundled with loans or other kinds of contracts) were invented in Genoa in the 14th century, as were insurance pools backed by pledges of landed estates. The first known insurance contract dates from Genoa in 1347, and in the next century maritime insurance developed widely and premiums were intuitively varied with risks.[6] These new insurance contracts allowed insurance to be separated from investment, a separation of roles that first proved useful in marine insurance.

The earliest known policy of life insurance was made in the Royal Exchange, London, on the 18th of June 1583, for £383, 6s. 8d. for twelve months, on the life of William Gibbons.[5]