The history of insurance in Hungary - from the beginnings to 1857

Insurance inspires confidence. It encourages perseverance and struggle. It eliminates fear of future opportunities. It provides the farmer with security... it minimizes the harmful effects of natural forces, allows uninterrupted work... it makes it possible to replace losses and start farming again.... Insurance constantly encourages small savings... in this way it contributes to increasing production, encourages diligence, hard work, and the avoidance of unnecessary expenses.... It awakens in the individual the awareness that it depends solely on his strong will, willingness to sacrifice, and self-restraint whether his relatives and he himself can escape financial disasters. It strengthens the sense of personal responsibility and makes the insured independent of the alms of others and the need for assistance. The past of the profession is the profession itself, the author, who is himself a practical practitioner of the insurance sector, declares in his preface. No profession can be successful without knowledge of its own history, without the consciousness-forming power of past experiences. More than two centuries ago, in 1807, the first insurance company in Hungary was founded, the Imperial and Royal Patent Shipping Insurance Company of Révkomárom. At the same time, we can already see the emergence of the idea of ​​insurance in the Roman burial societies, in the coffers of medieval guilds and miners, or in the 18th century fire compensation societies of the towns of Spiš. The volume that the Dear Reader is holding in his hands deals with the first, struggling decades of the institution's establishment. The spirit of the heroic age comes to life on its pages, with a relevance similar to the above encyclopedia clipping from 120 years ago.