Английская Википедия:Bottomry
Шаблон:Short description A bottomry, or bottomage, is an arrangement in which the master of a ship borrows money upon the bottom or keel of it, so as to forfeit the ship itself to the creditor, if the money with interest is not paid at the time appointed at the ship's safe return.[1]
This occurs, for example, where the ship needs urgent repairs during the course of its voyage or some other emergency arises and it is not possible for the master to contact the owner to arrange funds, allowing the master to borrow money on the security of the ship or the cargo by executing a bond. Where the ship is hypothecated, the bond is called a bottomry bond. Where both the ship and its cargo are hypothecated, the relationship is called respondentia. Due to the bottomry bond's relatively low priority as against other liens in the event of a libel against the ship, the use of bottomry bonds declined greatly in the 19th century and the subject is today of interest only to legal historians.
The Code of Hammurabi describes a form of bottomry which is a risk transferring technique. A bottomry would be taken, but the repayment would be contingent on the ship successfully completing the voyage. This is more like a catastrophe bond than traditional insurance. In traditional insurance, you pay premiums and receive a benefit on the risk event. With bottomry and catastrophe bonds, you receive a loan up front and only pay it back with a premium if the risk event doesn't occur.
By its nature, bottomry was prone to insurance fraud. Two common forms were taking bottomry against a ship and valuable cargo, setting sail with a cheap cargo, and scuttling the ship to keep the loan and the cargo, and pretending that the ship had sunk while it actually hid in a distant port and acquired a new name and crew. Demosthenes's speech Against Zenothemis accuses the titular shipper of the first type of fraud in the fourth century BCE.[2]
In his Life of Cato the Elder, Plutarch describes how he would use the process to make money, but calls it "the most disreputable form of money-lending".[3] Kaplan and Kaplan describe it as follows:
Respondentia
Respondentia is a loan where a ship's cargo is the security, on similar terms to bottomry.[4]
See also
References
Further reading
- Шаблон:Cite EB1911 This contains a detailed discussion of the contract and its history.
Шаблон:1728 Шаблон:Authority control
- ↑ Chambers, Ephraïm (1728). s.v. BOTTOMAGE. Cyclopædia: or, An Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (1 ed.). London: James & John Knapton; John Darby; and others. vol. 1, p. 120.
- ↑ Demosthenes, Orations, 32 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0076%3Aspeech%3D32%3Asection%3D1
- ↑ Cato, c. 21, in Waterfield, Robin. Plutarch, Roman Lives. Шаблон:ISBN
- ↑ Шаблон:Cite book
