Great Zhou Empire: Kill Zhao Kuangyin at the beginning

Chapter 459 Long Live Bao (Special thanks to book friend 2022…2990 for the 6 monthly tickets!)

Li Hang continued:

"Your Majesty, regarding the third item, our Great Zhou is now prosperous in commerce and transportation, but dangers do occur from time to time, especially for companies that focus on maritime trade. Ships are often destroyed and people are killed during long voyages.

Once it happens, it will bring tragedy to several families of the people, and the businesses will also suffer heavy losses in goods and money. Often, a prosperous business will go bankrupt due to a major accident.

Although some merchants in private prefectures and cities were aware of this problem, such as merchants in Bian Jing and Jiangnan, who formed a "Mutual Aid Association" to provide interest-free loans to help their peers who encountered sudden disasters, the number of participants and the funds raised were very limited.

I think if the imperial court can come forward and establish "commercial insurance", it will be of great benefit to alleviating the impact of sudden disasters and promoting commercial development. "

Deputy Minister Wang Dan came out of the class and said:
"Your Majesty, now our Great Zhou has expanded its land territory to Central and West Asia, and its maritime trade has also expanded to India, Daqin, and Mishir.

Due to the long distances, serious accidents often occur when private businesses are transporting goods.

As workshops continue to increase across the country, the number of production accidents also increases.

If the imperial court could introduce a mechanism to help workshops and businesses cover unexpected risks in their operations, it would greatly promote the prosperity of production and commerce across the country, prosper the commodity economy, and greatly increase tax revenue for the national treasury. "

The earliest recorded insurance in human history can be traced back to around 2500 BC.

Accidental deaths were common among ancient Egyptian stonemasons while building the pyramids.

So, the stonemasons formed a mutual aid organization, and each person contributed some money and saved it. In case anyone met with misfortune, the money would be used to buy a coffin and provide relief to the family.

In ancient China, things and systems similar to insurance have existed for a long time.

Warehousing system: During the Spring and Autumn Period in China, various vassal states formed a complete warehousing system.

For example, the idea of ​​“planting three parts and leaving one part in reserve” mentioned in the Book of Rites means storing one third of the grain harvested each year, and storing it for three consecutive years will be enough grain for a year.

This is a measure to prevent famine and war, reflecting the prevention and reserve functions of insurance. When encountering a famine, the stored food can be used to relieve the people, which is similar to a risk-sharing mechanism.

Escort agency: It is equivalent to a special "insurance agency" in ancient times. Escort agencies transport property or protect personal safety for clients, and clients pay a certain fee (similar to insurance premium).

If the escorted items arrive at the destination safely, the escort agency will be paid; if there is a risk of the escorted items being robbed or lost along the way, the escort agency must compensate the client according to the original value. This to a certain extent reflects the function of protecting the safety of customer property.

The origins of ancient Chinese escort agencies can be traced back to the Eastern Han Dynasty. As the wealth of nobles and merchants accumulated, they increasingly needed a safe and reliable means of transportation to transport their property and protect it from attacks by bandits.

In order to meet this demand, escort agencies came into being. They hired martial arts masters and provided armed escort services to ensure the safety of goods, and gradually developed into professional escort business organizations.

Mutual aid organizations: some mutual aid groups spontaneously formed by the public. Members pay a certain amount of fees or materials regularly. When a member encounters difficulties or suffers a disaster, the group provides assistance with the funds or materials raised together. This form of mutual aid also has a certain insurance concept, sharing individual risks through the power of the group.

Chai Zongxun was overjoyed and said:

"Li Shoufu is indeed a financial genius! He can even think of the great function of "commercial insurance".

These three are all excellent policies that benefit the country and the people. I have approved them all. After the cabinet has discussed and determined the details of the policies, they will report to me. "After the cabinet widely solicited suggestions from all walks of life inside and outside the court, on September 5, one month later, the implementation plan for the three major reforms was determined:

First, the imperial court invested a huge sum of 30 million taels of silver over three years to build more “poor houses” in all prefectures and counties across the country, with no fewer than ten in each prefecture and no fewer than five in each county, to ensure that there would be no old, weak, orphaned or lonely people in the society of the Great Zhou who were freezing and starving.

The operation of the "Yanjiyuan" was strictly supervised by the Wude Division and the local "Xiangxian Bureau". Those who committed crimes were sentenced according to the "Da Zhou Criminal Code".

Second, the imperial court would set up a "natural disaster relief fund" for the people by allocating funds from the tax surplus of the national treasury every year. When a major disaster occurred, relief funds would be distributed according to the number of victims to help the people get their lives and production back on track as soon as possible.

Chai Zongxun temporarily set the funding for this project at 10 million taels of silver per year.

Third, with the participation of Chai Zongxun in the design, the "Royal Bank" opened "commercial insurance", and all workshops and businesses within the Great Zhou were eligible to participate in the insurance.

There are three tentative categories:
One type paid an annual premium of 100 taels. When natural disasters or other unexpected events occurred, the royal bank would pay an insurance premium of 1,000 taels to the insured business or workshop.

The second category requires an annual premium of 1,000 taels. When an accident occurs, the royal bank will pay an insurance premium of 10,000 taels.

For the third category, the annual premium is 10,000 taels, and the insurance money is 100,000 taels.

These three types of insurance are aimed at small, medium and large workshops and businesses respectively.

The "Royal Bank" specifically sought out famous painters and calligraphers of the time to design and produce extremely exquisite and difficult-to-imitate "guarantee notes", which were then stamped with the seal of the "Royal Bank".

After the three policies were promoted nationwide, they had a huge impact, and the people called them "the policies of the sage" and the results were immediate.

With the large-scale construction and completion of "women's homes" in various places, vulnerable groups in society such as the orphans, the young, the elderly, the disabled, etc. have been included in the "women's homes" and have received good care.

The living standard is above the level of food and clothing, and is increasing year by year with the improvement of the social and economic level of the Great Zhou.

With food and clothing guaranteed, the orphans were able to attend the "National School" and learn to read and write.

Once the commercial insurance of "Royal Bank" was launched, it was welcomed by almost all workshop owners and business owners.

The operators of workshops and businesses were some of the most business-savvy, intelligent and courageous people in the Great Zhou Empire at that time. They immediately discovered the huge benefits of "commercial insurance".

With "commercial insurance", the risk of unexpected events to one's business can be reduced to a minimum and its adverse effects can be almost eliminated.

The royal money house founded by Chai Zongxun at the beginning of Kaixi years under the Ministry of Internal Affairs has been in operation for nearly 30 years. It has always had a very high reputation and has always been operated in good faith according to the contract. There has never been a problem with the people's deposits.

No one in the Great Zhou Dynasty doubted the integrity of the commercial insurance issued by the royal bank endorsed by Emperor Chai Zongxun.

Therefore, once the "Royal Bank" commercial insurance was launched, buyers in all states across the country were extremely enthusiastic. In just one month, hundreds of millions of taels of insurance policies were sold, which made the officials who were initially worried about the high amount of compensation no longer have any doubts.

A few years later, the people of the Great Zhou Dynasty, who had tasted the huge benefits of commercial insurance, affectionately called it "Wansuibao".

(End of this chapter)