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oa Van kade naar stadhuis - Informatieuitwisseling, fraudebestrijding en gereglementeerde innovatie in Antwerpse zeeverzekeringen (ca. 1550-ca. 1700)
- Amsterdam University Press
- Source: Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis, Volume 125, Issue 3, Aug 2012, p. 366 - 383
Abstract
In the early modern period mercantile custom and official law, the latter of which was imposed by legislators and applied by judges, did not differ very much. In the second half of the sixteenth century and in the seventeenth century merchants trading in Antwerp negotiated with the urban and royal authorities for official precepts in order to tackle the fraud endemic in marine insurance. In response to these developments and in light of innovations in marine insurance contracts, Antwerp’s leaders adapted their legislation and renewed their judgements. After a temporary shock to relations between the urban government and the merchant community of Antwerp in the early seventeenth century, a new equilibrium was sought and found after 1650. As a result, and as had been the case before 1600, condemnation of fraudulent practices and protection of contractual liberty went hand in hand once more.