Part 1: Why and How Risk is Shared -- 1. Introduction: Sharing Risks, on Averages and Why they Matter; Maria Fusaro -- 2. General Average and All the Rest: The Law and Economics of Early Modern Maritime Risk Mitigation; Ron Harris -- 3. Risky Narratives: Framing General Average into Risk-Management Strategies (13th-16th Centuries); Giovanni Ceccarelli -- Part 2: Origins and Variants of Mutual Protection -- 4. General Average in Byzantium; Daphne Penna -- 5. Rules and Practices of General Average in the Islamic Mediterranean on the Eve of the Emergence of the Italian Communes; Hassan Khalilieh -- 6. Principles and Developments of General Average: Statutory and Contractual Loss Allowances from the Lex Rhodia to the Early Modern Mediterranean; Andrea Addobbati -- Part 3: The Iberian Experience -- 7. The Mutualisation of Maritime Risk in the Crown of Castile, 1300-1550; Ana Maria Rivera Medina -- 8. General Average, Compulsory Contributions and Castilian Normative Practice in the Southern Low Countries (Sixteenth Century); Gijs Dreijer -- 9. The Nautical Republic of the Carrera de Indias: Commerce, Navigation, Casos Fortuitos and Averia Gruesa in the Sixteenth Century; Marta Garcia Garralon -- Part 4: The Genoese Experience -- 10. General Average in Genoa: Between Statutes and Customs; Antonio Iodice -- 11. The Economic Structure of Maritime Trade Calling at the Port of Genoa through the Analysis of General Average Data (16th-17th centuries); Luisa Piccinno -- 12. Financing and Risk in Genoese Maritime Trade during the Eighteenth Century: Strategies and Practices; Andrea Zanini -- Part 5: Mature Systems -- 13. Divide and Rule: Risk Sharing and Political Economy in the Free Port of Livorno; Jake Dyble -- 14. GA Adjustments in Amsterdam: Reinforcing Authority through Transparency and Accountability (late Sixteenth - early Seventeenth Century); Sabine Go -- 15. The Honour of Giving my Opinion: General Average, Insurance and the Compilation of the Ordonnance de la Marine of 1681; Lewis Wade

Maria Fusaro is Professor in Early Modern Social and Economy History at the University of Exeter, UK, where she directs the Centre for Maritime Historical Studies. She is the PI for the ERC-funded project 'AveTransRisk Average Transaction Costs and Risk Management during the First Globalization (Sixteenth-Eighteenth Centuries)'. Andrea Addobbati is Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Pisa, Italy. Luisa Piccinno is Associate Professor of Economic History at the Department of Economics of University of Genoa, Italy. This open access book explores the history of risk management in medieval and early modern European maritime business, focusing particularly on 'General Average' a mechanism by which extraordinary expenses regarding ship or cargo, incurred during a voyage to save the venture, are shared between all participants to protect equity. This volume traces the history of this risk management tool from its origins in the pre-Roman Mediterranean through to its use in the shipping sector today. Contributions range from the Islamic Mediterranean to the Low Countries, and taken together, provide a wide-ranging analysis of social, cultural, and political aspects of pre-modern maritime commerce in Europe