The Week in Meep: Underwriters, Sumo, and Mozart
Let's get cozy on a chilly fall day
It’s chilly today in my corner of the world, so I want to get cozy with some entertainment. Let’s look at three things I’m enjoying:
Underwriters of the United States
(If you wonder how you, too, can send me a book, check out my Amazon list.)
Unassuming but formidable, American maritime insurers used their position at the pinnacle of global trade to shape the new nation. The international information they gathered and the capital they generated enabled them to play central roles in state building and economic development. During the Revolution, they helped the U.S. negotiate foreign loans, sell state debts, and establish a single national bank. Afterward, they increased their influence by lending money to the federal government and to its citizens. Even as federal and state governments began to encroach on their domain, maritime insurers adapted, preserving their autonomy and authority through extensive involvement in the formation of commercial law. Leveraging their claims to unmatched expertise, they operated free from government interference while simultaneously embedding themselves into the nation's institutional fabric. By the early nineteenth century, insurers were no longer just risk assessors. They were nation builders and market makers.
Deeply and imaginatively researched, Underwriters of the United States uses marine insurers to reveal a startlingly original story of risk, money, and power in the founding era.
This detail from an Amazon review from Chris in February 2023 piqued my interest:
Finally, the reader will learn about the role Lloyds of London played in the structure and formation of the original American Marine insurers. Spoiler alert: Until this practice was outlawed, Lloyds of London insured some of the voyages of Britain’s war enemies! While this sounds treasonous, Dr. Farber explains why this made sense to Lloyds, and even with many in the British government. Wars were good (financially) for both London and American Marine insurers!
Yeah, insurers have always been seen as suspect in morality. Many people know about the practices with respect to insurance and the slave trade (yes, property insurance — and checking the index, I see that’s in the book). But yes, insuring property (and life) with war exclusions still goes on today, but I’m not going to write about that right now.
Table of contents:
Insure, Britannia! Marine Insurance and the Maritime Empire, 1622-1776
Underwriting a Revolution, 1776-1789
Forging “Golden Chains”: The Constitutional Project of Chartering Insurance Companies, 1790-1800
Investing Capital and Inventing Value, 1800-1815
Market Readers, Market Makers: American Insurers at War, 1793-1815
Wooden Ships, Paper Capitals: The Rise and Fall of Jacob Barker, 1815-1826
State Making and Myth Making, 1820-1860
There is intro and outro material, and about 30% of the book is reference material (footnotes, bibliography, etc.)
I’m really looking forward to reading this.
IT’S SUMO TIME!
You can go over to my other substack, Sumo Stats, to take a look at the height-weight scatterplot of the November 2024 Grand Sumo Tournament:
Or have a nice eyeful of one of the Makuuchi newbies, Asakoryu:
You can watch daily, 11:30am ET for Grand Sumo Highlights at NHK World.
There are various sumo streamers (if you’re a crazy person like me who wakes up in the middle of the night, and can watch 2-4amET.)
Some Mozart for Enjoyment
I enjoy my Mozart Requiem, as noted before. Here is a non-Mass setting:
According to the notes, this is a live recording made on 28th of February 2014 at the Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, with the Bach Choir and Orchestra of the Netherlands. This is the group I have been listening to all my Bach with.
Olga Zinovieva - soprano
Sytse Buwalda - countertenor
Martinus Leusink - tenor
Thilo Dahlmann - bass
Pieter Jan Leusink - conductor
The Bach Orchestra of the Netherlands
Excellent performance, as with all the performances I’ve been hearing from this ensemble.
Enjoy!