Goods delivery

Since the dawn of time, and commerce, goods have been carried from their place of occurrence or production to the place where they are required, and often these journeys have been hazardous and fraught with natural perils and dangers. Before aeroplanes there were only two possibilities, carriage by land and carriage by sea. One can think of many examples of sea transport over the last two thousand years, dangerous and difficult though it was. Spices, silks and tea would be the first to be thought of- everyone knows of the oriental trades from China and from India.

The birth of insurance

The first insurance for carried goods arose in China where merchants would distribute their goods over several boats so that if one boat was lost then at least there were other boats which stood a chance of getting to their destination. Babylonian merchants would take out a loan to fund a shipment, and added on to this loan was a premium which would write off the loan in the case of a shipment being lost.

Carriage of goods by land

Hazardous as it was, sea travel was still safer than travel by land. However goods were taken by land across continents. An example that most people will have heard of is the Frankincense Trail, explored recently in a BBC broadcast. By this route frankincense was taken two thousand miles across the Middle East, arriving eventually in Europe. More local examples can be regarded, for instance the carrying of wine from France, Italy and Spain to Britain. Even within Britain, one can examine the carriage of cloth from the Northern Mills in Yorkshire and Lancashire, to the south. Another example is that of the carriage of fish from the coasts to inland area, and of course the start of the postal service.

Conditions for early couriers

In medieval times roads would have been poor, and for most of the country, goods would have been carried by a pack horse. Although slow, probably only able to cover 30 miles a day, these bear more similarity to modern day couriers, as they would stop at towns to drop off goods, and maybe to pick up other goods for the return journey. Letters would also have been carried on horseback, a service which began following the Norman Conquest of Britain in 1066, and was developed by Charles I, who opened up his Royal Mail to the public in 1635.

Although the first insurance contract was signed in Genoa in 1347, it is unlikely that small individual traders, or messenger services, would have benefited from this, they would have had to take the risks of carriage on themselves. Insurance companies first arrived in Britain in the 1830s, just after the train network began to carry goods, post and packages, and people- a revolution in transport. But the people and traders who benefited from this extraordinary new transport would have been yet more amazed if they could see the present day networks of road and rail, and the extensive and rapid deliveries of parcels and goods which we now take for granted.

View all Shanelle Gill's articles

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About the Author:
The Moorhouse Insurance Group is based in Caerphilly, Wales, has been trading for more than 20 years, and has won major awards in the insurance field, including business insurance.

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