Fundación MAPFRE has just published History of Insurance in Spain. This is
an important book because, as it says in the Introduction entrusted to its Chairman, Antonio
Huertas, it fills a gap in this country’s historical bibliography. I concur with this
statement in that it is possible to find monographs in Spain on companies or sub-sectors
within the insurance market, but on the other hand historical studies on the industry as a
whole from a nationwide standpoint are hard to come by, and this is exactly what this book
deals with that is being discussed here.
And to put together such an ambitious book a team has been
assembled which is equal to the task at hand and headed up by Professor Emeritus of Economic
History, Gabriel Tortella Casares. Moreover impeccable sources have been used, both in terms
of documentation and people, as access has been obtained to archives and personalities of
major importance. In my view the book is very complete, not just because of the host
of topics it deals with, but also the variety of sources used. Consultation of the in-house
official records and documents of companies and institutions, and interviewing people of
some standing, imbues the work with an interesting historical insight which means that we do
not get that feeling which comes over us so often with certain books on history which tend
to be very long-winded in telling us about the what but leave us short-changed when
it comes to letting us know the why.
The book is structured into eight chapters that take us from the
first, reserved for the introduction, through to the eighth, which features conclusions. The
content takes a diachronic approach, beginning with certain concepts of insurance theory and
a review of the background of insurance in antiquity and ending with developments in private
insurance in the 21st century. In fact the most recent information is from 2012, which is,
so to speak, really only yesterday. This chronological path is schematised via the elements
defining each period.
Thus chapter two, entitled “From the individual insurers
to the insurance companies”, explains the changes in the insurance market, from marine
insurance in the modern era to the presence of various stock insurance companies in several
Spanish cities, the transformation of which was greatly influenced by trade with the
colonies in the Americas.
Chapter three looks at developments in insurance in the 19th
century. It offers a clear presentation of the influence which the governmental alternatives
and their respective options as regards political economy — liberalism versus
protectionism — had in that century on the shaping of an insurance market in which,
towards the end of this period, the first multinational companies emerged.
Chapter four explains the vicissitudes in Spanish insurance in
the turbulent times between 1908 and 1939. That is to say between the year in which the
first Insurance Regulations were passed within the Spanish legal system and the National
Provident Institute was also created, and the year marking the end of the Civil War. The
dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, the Second Republic and the War brought about drastic
changes in institutional and professional aspects — for example with the appearance of
insurance actuaries — and also in areas of protection. In this way, along with the
first social insurance policies, there were various life insurance
products based more on chance than scientific principles, such
as in the case of the Tontines (named after their creator, Tonti) and the Chatelusian
schemes, which were later on to succumb to the advent of life insurance based on actuarial
methods. Of particular interest in my view is the debate surrounding the proposal to set up
an insurance monopoly, which took place within the republican administration during the
Civil War and is taken from the minutes of the Banking and Insurance Commission in 1937.
Chapter five examines the Franco era before the Social Security
system, the major milestones of this particularly concerning the origin of the Consorcio
de Compensación de Seguros from several compensation schemes that had
been created for specific purposes. Another noteworthy detail from this juncture is the 1954
Insurance Regulation Act and several measures to administer the Social Security system, the
employers’ mutual companies acting as partners.
Chapter six analyses the trends in private insurance between
1966 and 2000, a period in which the current insurance market took shape. Here there are
numerous items of notable significance, both on the regulatory and institutional side and in
economic terms. Among other aspects examined here are the change in representative bodies,
the progress of the Social Security system, and the development of the Consorcio and the
CLEA (Insurance Companies Winding-up Commission). The chapter also traces the progress of
the main lines of insurance (life, auto insurance, agricultural, corporate, etc., as well as
reinsurance) and the changes in corporate rankings, with the fall of the insurer which had
led them, La Unión y el Fénix, and the rise to prominence of MAPFRE. Another
essential feature of this period was Spain’s entry into the European Community, which
would entail a crucial change in all aspects of the insurance market.
The seventh chapter is devoted to how insurance has progressed
in the 21st century. The twelve years it takes in are characterised by the shift from
economic euphoria to recession and the increasingly greater influence of European provisions
in regulating the Spanish market via the Directives known as Solvency I and II. But also by
other means, such as the various rules on auto insurance, which have prompted changes in
Spanish regulations, and even through the influence of equality policy stemming from the
jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the national provisions
themselves. Certain trends which had already begun in the previous period have become more
pronounced in the 21st century to date, such as internationalisation and greater corporate
concentration, which bancassurance-type alliances between the banking and insurance industry
and the winding-up of loss-makers have had a hand in. The CLEA has played a major role in
the latter, this having been merged into the Consorcio de Compensación de
Seguros since 2002.
Since this is a (good) Economic History book, there is also a substantial
role in it for statistics and even the collection of facsimiles which appear
throughout it by way of illustration. As for the statistics, there is a good
selection in the final chapters and the annexes, where all sorts of figures
and rankings complement the text.
The preface states that the printed edition does not contain an
alphabetical index of subjects, companies and individuals as this is available on the
Fundación Mapfre website. There is nonetheless a comprehensive list of sources and a
bibliography, as well as a glossary of abbreviations and acronyms, which facilitate reading,
and fuller information for those who are interested in going into further detail about the
topics discussed.
I recommend reading this History of Insurance in Spain to any
professionals working in the industry who wish to become more familiar with it and, of
course, all students and researchers. It is an important book. And useful too.
"History of Insurance in Spain.
Fundación Mapfre"
Tortella Casares, G. (Ed.); Caruana de las Cagigas, L.; García Ruiz, J.; Manzano
Martos, A. and Pons Pons, J. (2014)
530 pages.
