The concept of insurance is, generally speaking, a safety measure against misfortune. The nowadays professional indemnity insurance, used under different forms these days, has been practiced thousands of years ago, as people became aware that no matter if they traded goods, slaves, or they simply needed a large sum of money, they had to insure their merchandise or property somehow, in order to protect themselves and their business. Although this term may have pierced into the common speech recently – some centuries ago – the concept has been practiced starting with ancient times.

One might say that the idea of insurance is strongly related to the appearance of human society, which developed two types of economies: a money related economy, resumed to markets, money, financial instruments, etc. and a goods related economy, based on people helping each other. The latter one has been used for a longer period of time; for instance, if a person’s property burnt down, the community would help constructing another one and therefore receive help in return, should there be the case.

Back into the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC, the Chinese and the Babylonian traders were also making use of the ancient form of insurance. While crossing rapid, dangerous rivers, the Chinese would distribute their ware to several ships, so as to minimize the losses, whereas the Babylonians created a system that was also recorded in the Code of Hammurabi: if a trader borrowed a sum of money in order to finance his shipment, he would pay the lender some extra money as insurance that the lender would cancel the loan, in case the shipment was stolen.

Using a similar principle, the Achaemenian monarchs were offered gifts of different values by their people. The gifts exceeding the value of 10.000 Derrik (Achaemenian gold coin) were registered into a special office and if a person having offered such expensive gifts wanted to marry his children, organize a party, start a building, etc, they would receive in exchange a sum twice as large unto this purpose.

All in all, the concept of insurance can be found throughout the history under different forms, different situations and different names. However, the one constant throughout the ages is the fact that the concept was adopted in order to guarantee that one’s business or property, no matter what form it took, was protected against casualties or misfortune.