Inafi L.A.

How it all startedIn the past, a disaster affecting a member of a community would frequently be alleviated by other members of that community- neighbours and friends- rallying round to help out, rebuilding the house or business, offer something from their own goods and chattels, a calf to replace the bull that was poisoned or killed by a falling tree, even just a bowl of sustenance to keep the family from starving. This was done in the assumption that when calamity struck in your own house you could expect the same treatment, the softening of the blow, by reciprocation.And in the history of mankind there has never been a shortage of disasters and calamities! Hurricanes, earthquakes, fire and flood, famine, disease and pestilence are only the start of the catalogue of ills which have beset people from all walks of life, from the dawn of time.Loss by fireOf th employment law services ese, fire was the most frequent cause of loss of property, and was consequently one of the first areas to be subject to a more organised insurance business. In Britain, in the early 17th century, if your house was burnt down the only recourse you had was to request a ?brief’ from a magistrate which would allow you to benefit from a public, charitable collection, if you were deemed worthy of such. Following the Great Fire of London in 1666, the Insurance Office for Houses (later to become the Fire Office) was started, to insure brick and frame houses. (This was pioneered by one Nicholas Barbon, a builder and theoretic economist, whose middle name, bizarrely, was If-Jesus-Christ-Had-Not-Died-For-Thee-Thou-Hadst-Been-Damned!)So many small businesses had been wiped out by the all consuming fire -13,200 buildings had been destroyed – that this was a popular move.