The Making of the Swedish Life Insurance Market 1855-1914
Liselotte Eriksson
ISSN: 1653-7475 Occasional Papers in Economic History Nr 15/2008
Licentiate Thesis Occasional Papers in Economic History No. 15 2008
© Liselotte Eriksson, 2008
Institutionen för ekonomisk historia 901 87 Umeå www.ekhist.umu.se
Abstract
This licentiate thesis examines the development of the life insurance industry during the period 1855-1914. The aim with the study is to recognise dimensions not frequently addressed by previous research on the insurance industry, namely the impact of social dimensions, including the implicit and explicit economic importance of social movements and the diffusion of knowledge in society at large for the development of the life insurance industry. The study shows that income and price had limited importance in explaining the demand for life insurance before the 20th century and that this can be attributed to a lack of sufficient knowledge regarding financial issues and to a far too high access cost in acquiring a life insurance for a large part of society. The development of the life insurance industry must therefore be understood through improved knowledge both on the part of the life insurance companies and on part of the consumers. The licentiate further shows how diffusion of knowledge throughout society also was due to a diffusion of democratic ideas and the rise of social movements, movements that life insurance actors were a part of. These actions helped open up the financial market for the masses and probably also strengthened the trust towards the industry. It is however hard to dismiss the life insurance actors’ engagement in women’s movement as a cover-up for other disguised motives not so honourable, while a direct economic gain for the life insurance industry is hard to establish.
Keywords: Economic history, life insurance, demand, price elasticity, income elasticity, married women’s property rights, social movement
3 Acknowledgements
Many have contributed to this licentiate thesis. First I wish to thank my supervisor Magnus Lindmark for his constant encouragement, entertaining metaphors and for commenting this licentiate thesis in various stages without loosing faith. I further want to thank several eminent academics for their often vivid comments and support: Mike Adams, Lars Fredrik Andersson, Monica Burman, Mikael Lönnborg, Joel Mokyr and Jan Ottosson. On the personal level my twin sister Madeleine and her husband Rikard have my constant love and gratitude. And to my beloved niece Judith born October the 16th 2008, I am sorry I missed your first weeks on this earth while finishing this licentiate thesis. It won’t happen again. Finally, thank you Fredrik for everything!
Liselotte Eriksson Umeå, October 31th 2008
4 CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION...... 6 1.1 BACKGROUND ...... 6 1.2 THE OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS ...... 10 1.3 THE OUTLINE OF THE LICENTIATE THESIS AND DEFINITIONS...... 12 1.5 METHODS AND SOURCES ...... 14 1.5.1 Article I...... 16 1.5.2 Article II...... 17 2. PREVIOUS RESEARCH...... 19 3. USEFUL KNOWLEDGE AND THE FINANCIAL ECONOMY ...... 25 ARTICLE 1: INSURANCE AND INCOME GROWTH: THE CASE OF SWEDEN 1830-1950 ...... 28 Abstract ...... 30 Key Words ...... 30 Introduction...... 31 The financial revolution and the growth of insurance markets ...... 33 Method...... 36 Data...... 38 The demand for insurance ...... 43 The development of price and risk in life and fire insurance...... 50 Concluding remarks ...... 57 Acknowledgements ...... 59 Literature...... 60 ARTICLE 2: FINANCIAL BUSINESS AS A SOCIAL PROJECT...... 67 6 CONCLUSIONS ...... 91 7 SOURCES AND LITERATURE...... 93 7.1 OFFICIAL STATISTICS...... 93 7.2 LITERATURE...... 93
5 1 Introduction
1.1 Background
Sound insurance companies, are according to Richard Sylla one of the components of a modern financial system. The evolution of sound insurance companies is part of what he calls the 19th century financial revolution.1 Not the least the life insurance industry came to play a crucial part in the development of the financial system by mobilizing savings and allocating risks.2 The social and economic transformation of Sweden during the 19th century changed how risks were perceived, valued and mitigated. In the agricultural society, it was commonplace that risk-management was based on customary rules that aimed at diversifying risks in the agricultural production, i.e. self-insurance .3 Women, children or other relatives could for example have opportunity and enough knowledge about e.g. farming to take the place of a deceased or injured member of the family. Urbanisation and new conditions on the labour market changed this state of affairs as wage earnings became increasingly important. An increasing part of the population became dependent primarily on one male breadwinner, not the least in the growing cities. The premature death of the man could therefore leave the family in economic ruin. A life insurance could in these cases be a substitute for the lack of capital assets and the over time diminishing safety net of the old agricultural society. Consequently, life insurance came to play an important part of the 19th century economic and social modernisation. Organized efforts to reduce the consequences of private risk, by sharing risk, have a long tradition in society. Already medieval guilds and craftsmen’s associations initiated a primitive kind of compulsory health and funeral insurance, and in the case of illness, everyone in the guild were obligated to support the injured or seriously ill guild-member by economic or practical means. The receiver of the contributions, however, had to pay back the help given after his recovery. In the case of death, all guild-members had to make a contribution to the funeral.4 This system had its weaknesses, for instance due to insufficient funding and risk management while, from the perspective of the individual, a period of illness could result in serious indebtedness. A forerunner to the life insurance industry as it evolved in Sweden since
1 Sylla (2002), p. 280 2 Mason (1995), pp. 172-175. 3 Hägg (1998), p. 106. 4 Lindberg (1949), pp. 2-5.
6 the mid 19th century, was a kind of widows’ fund (Amiralitets-Krigsmanskassan), established in Sweden 1642. This was, in the Swedish context, a new institutional form of provision for dependents, providing pensions for widows on the basis of contributions made during their husbands’ lifetimes.5 The funds were limited to specific regions and underwriting was exclusively intended for men with specific positions in society, primarily the growing group of officials with lack of capital assets, mainly priests and soldiery. The idea underlying the widows’ funds was to avoid a degeneration of upper- and bourgeois widows by enabling them to keep the same standard even after the death of the husband. The worst case scenario would be if widows of officials were forced to work to make a living and by that became part of the working class. This would affect the remaining family of the widow and shake the legitimacy of the class-society. According to Rosenhaft, the upper-classes therefore joined in effort to avoid a similar development and widows’ funds became widely used. Rosenhaft suggests that the demand for life insurance was generated from the demand of women. According to Rosenhaft widows’ funds being a forerunner to life insurance, therefore implies that women invented life insurance. 6 Over time different kinds of health- and burial insurance societies (Sjuk- and begravningskassor) evolved, many contemporary with the modern insurance industry.7 These societies were however not nationwide but limited either to a working place, unions, a group like total abstainers, a parish or a city. In Sweden, these societies gained public financial support by different arrangements settled during the years 1891-1910, if they adjusted their business to certain conditions. The state wished to enhance the control and sound operations of these funds, since both the widows’ funds and several of the earlier insurance societies, lacked sufficient actuarial knowledge. All age groups could for example pay the same premiums, which lead to increased risk of insolvency, leaving people without economic protection and without the right to claim the premiums already paid.8 Despite this, the societies could in some cases grow strong, while they often had a local connection and was run by people known to all members of the society. This could, according to several scholars, lead to a misplaced trust in insolvent societies.9 It is evident that the guild system, the widows’ funds and the health- and burial societies, all based their business on the practise of excluding and including customers by
5 Three different widows’ funds were founded in Sweden during the second half of the 18th century. 6 Rosenhaft (2004), p. 163. 7 The societies were of limited importance until 1870, according to Lindeberg (1949), p. 52. 8 Bergander (1967), p. 285. 9 Hägg (1998), pp. 217-218. See also Stalson (1942), pp. 35-36.
7 guild, class, occupation, sex or geographic belonging. This was according to Hägg an advantage, while trust in the society already was established by the mutual organisation, the familiarity and recognition of the organizers of the societies.10 Hence, this licentiate thesis will argue that with the arrival of the life insurance companies, the formal excluding vanished and a safety net in shape of a life insurance contract was, at least in theory, offered to everyone who could afford. This liberal idea was however in practice encompassing the few. Like the widows funds, the purchase of a life insurance, initially, to a high extent was limited to bourgeois or upper-class male officials, women and blue-collar workers among the insured were quite unusual. The life insurance was early on both expensive and inaccessible, especially for people living in remote areas of Sweden. Conditions put forward explaining the establishment of the first national insurance company based on robust mortality tables and actuarial techniques, was among other factors affected by freedom of trade through the new statues of 1846 and the abolishment of the medieval, compulsory public fire aid in 1853.11 This compulsory fire aid implied that all members of a county or parish were forced to make contributions to victims of fire damages. This risk-sharing institution was established in provincial laws already in 1200 and in the General Rural Law hundred-and-fifty years later, it did however not encompass urban areas, where instead local mutual fire insurance companies were introduced in the 18th century.12 Initially a state owned life insurance company was planned in Sweden, with several German annuity assurance companies as role models. But the private interests preceded the plans, and the composite life- and fire insurance company Skandia was established 1855.13 Influential, wealthy men with political influence were supporters of the private initiative, further illustrated by members of parliament becoming economic supporters and board members in Skandia.14 The historic trend of the corporate forms in Swedish life insurance industry can be characterized by two waves of establishment: The first companies that were established were composite joint-stock companies. 15 The composite companies, with both life- and fire
10 Hägg (1998), pp. 215-218. 11 Bucht (1936), pp. 136-168. 12 Söderberg (1935), pp. 21-31. See also Larsson & Lönnborg (2008, forthcoming), pp. 3-4. 13 Following the corporate structure of Skandia, Svea was established in 1866 in Gothenburg, Skåne in 1884 in Malmö. The first company limited to life insurance only, was Nordstjernan established in 1871. 14 For example A.O. Wallenberg. 15 The joint-stock company Thule est. 1875 introduced mutual principles with e.g. a small capital stock. It also limited the exchange for shareholders in addition to the one for insurers and the costumers had the symbolic
8 insurance were adopted in an era where fire insurance was measured as a much lower risk than life insurance, probably because fire insurance was an older, experienced line of insurance. This however, turned out to be a false assumption clearly displayed by the city fires of the late nineteenth century and the decline in mortality.16 During the second half of the 19th century new insurance companies adapted the mutual idea and a number of small mutual life insurance companies were established; by 1890 twenty mutual life insurance companies were active. But due to, among other things, insufficient risk-calculations, only eight (widows’ funds excluded) of the twenty mutual companies survived up till the turn of the century.17 By this time, a new kind of mutual life insurance, the industrial life insurance (folkförsäkringsbolag), started to successfully insure the working class. This development was related to transformations occurring on different social and economic levels in society, for instance, the insurance companies recognized an unexploited market in the working class. The high risks faced by the working class, lacking both protection in case of injury or death, opened up for the industrial life insurance companies. By aiming their business towards the working classes, the business of the mutual companies did further democratize –in the sense underwriting larger and larger shares of the population- the insurance industry by adjusting its products to working class conditions. The business idea of the industrial life insurance was in other words to offer smaller life insurances something that demanded a more extensive organisation of insurance agents to collect the often weekly or monthly premiums paid by the household of the insured. The focus of this licentiate thesis is however the early ordinary life insurance, which was aimed primarily towards the middle-class. The middle-class was an important target group for the life insurance industry, while the middle class often were dependent on wage earnings, and not necessarily owners of capital assets; a life insurance could therefore offer the protection needed. Previously in this introduction it was stated that life insurance became a crucial mean to secure the family income after the death of the breadwinner. Furthermore, it remains obvious that, by doing so, the life insurance also facilitated the growth of the middle class. The liberal middle class in turn became important while they initiated and added fuel to the growing debates on social and economic justice during the nineteenth century. The implication of life insurance is therefore that it facilitated and made possible the conditions that gave rise to social movements with intent to loosen up notions of suppression that still possibility to elect new managers. Variations of this company structure came to set the trend, see Larsson (1998), p. 53. 16 Bergander (1962), pp. 71-72 17 Englund (1982), p. 46.
9 permeated society during the second half of the 19th century. By doing so, the life insurance also challenged the traditional notions of reciprocity of the pre-industrial society. Life insurance therefore came in the centre of 19th century economic, social and economic transformation.
1.2 The objectives and research questions
In the international literature, several researches have noticed a time-lag between the establishment of a financial industry on one hand, and the maturity and diffusion of a financial service on the other. This has also been stressed by Sylla: “The British financial system coming out of the early-eighteenth-century financial revolution did not really mature into a fully modern system until sometime in the nineteenth century.”18 This reasoning can also be applied on the Swedish life insurance industry where the first company was established 1855. By 1898 there were approximately 120 000 persons insured in Swedish life insurance companies, but ten years later,1908, this number had reached to closely one million.19 It might be argued that every new industry has problems when establishing its business, but a number of scholars on the insurance industry consider this problem to be especially accentuated in the establishment of the life insurance industry, even when compared to other financial services. 20 One reason for this is that the social mechanisms and the behaviour of ordinary people is crucial for understanding the pattern of demand for insurance, while the acting and choices of people in society, together with other economic factors, creates the conditions for the market, figuratively speaking the rules of the game. Still previous Swedish research on the insurance industry has so far not been including social history in explaining this process, although both economic and social factors are discussed in the international literature. It is therefore reason to hypothesise that the interplay between economic and social factors, among other things, constituted the qualitative difference between the developments prior to the 1850s and the broad financial break-thorough characterizing 19th century Sweden.21
18 Sylla (2002), p. 281. 19 Civildepartementet försäkringsinspektionen, Försäkringsväsendet i riket1898-1908, Stockholm. 20 See Stalson (1942), pp. 37-44. Zelizer (1979), pp.149-153. Lönnborg (1999), p. 62. Kenely (2001), p. 165 and Wright & Smith (2004), p. 3. 21 The Swedish nodes in the traditional financial network were among others the numerous urban dealers and brokers, together with prosperous farmers and peasants which actively sought out income-generating investment opportunities according to Lindgren (2002), p. 811.
10 The importance of diffusion of technological ideas in explaining economic development has been emphasised by several scholars.22 From the perspective of life insurance, technological ideas would pertain to both actuarial techniques and financial risk management. However, Mokyr furthermore stresses the importance of society at large and its improved access to different ideas with potential of leading to social progress, in explaining the economic development of the industrial society.23 With respect to insurance this means, broadly speaking that, what the general society “knows”, is crucial for the development of the insurance industry, in other words the general public’s knowledge of life insurance as an economic instrument for risk sharing and risk mitigation. The overall purpose of this licentiate thesis is therefore to explore how the transition of the Swedish life insurance industry into a matured financial system, interacted with socio- economic and political change during the period 1855-1914. This is motivated since aspects on the Swedish financial development this far have been focusing primarily on the specific businesses relationships, and the specific regulation of the industry as a whole, while the co- evolution of financial modernisation and social improvement and social change has been given much less attention. The economic and social dimensions of modernisation and economic growth can hardly be separated.24 According to Mokyr the economic development and improvement that took place during the 19th century economic expansion, also involved social improvement and social change coming out of social networks, institutions and organisations of different kind. This main purpose is divided into two objectives for a closer study of the determinants of demand and how social transformation and the development of life insurance industry reciprocated.
- The first objective is to identify the existence, proper periodisation and nature of the process of maturity of the Swedish life insurance industry.
- The second objective is to understand how the process of maturity of the life insurance industry was influenced and how it influenced social and political change, alas exclusive of factors directly associated with economic growth.
22 See for example Landes (1969). Rosenberg (1982) and Bruland (1998). 23 Mokyr (2002), pp. 8, 32, 37. 24 Mokyr (2005), p. 291.
11 Aspects of these objectives are then studied in two articles: (1) The first article analyses the demand for life insurance, and (2) The second article explores, among others, the role of insurance managers in the first organisation for women’s rights, which in turn is related to property rights issues. The first objective is dealt with in the first article which seeks to identify the process of maturity through studying the impact of traditional demand-side factors on the historical demand for life insurance. By doing so, factors related to the maturity of the industry, such as the diffusion of useful knowledge may be interpreted and discussed qualitatively. Here, a theoretical framework based on the ideas of Joel Mokyr will be used. More specifically the research question is “when did the insurance industry mature in Sweden and what factors may explain this”? The second objective is met by an analysis of the roles played by social and political movements in the development of the life insurance industry, but also vice versa: how the life insurance industry affected social and political movements. This implies investigate the period which turned Sweden into a financially modernized country and almost simultaneously gave rise to extended rights for women and blue-collar workers. More specifically the research question is, are there evidence for insurance actor involvement in social and political movements and, if that is the case, how tightly connected was their motives to those of the companies and their owners? Previous research has studied the transformation of Swedish private financial markets towards more institutionalised forms of financial institutions.25 The concern of this paper is, however, to study the process that took place within an already modernised life insurance industry, from the establishment of the industry and towards the maturity of life insurance, which is here seen as the evolution towards the establishment of the concept of life insurance in people’s everyday life.
1.3 The outline of the licentiate thesis and definitions
In the preceding section of this study the term “modern financial system” has already been used, which requires a definition. This study is going to use the definition made by Sylla who defines the components of a modern financial system to be: “sound public finances and public debt management; stable monetary and payments arrangements; sound banking systems
25 Lilja (2004), pp. 42-45. Shows how the private credit market in Sweden existed before and during the transformation to a more institutionalised credit market.
12 (more generally, institutional lenders); an effective central bank; good securities markets for debt, equity, and money-market instruments; and sound insurance companies (more generally, institutional investors).”26 According to Ögren these criteria got realised for the Swedish financial system around 1850-1870.27 This underlines what already has been stated, that the life insurance companies28 included in this study were, according to Sylla and Ögren, part of a modern financial system. This licentiate thesis is further focusing on the establishment of the modern life insurance industry up until the “maturity” of the same. Sylla is also quoted in defining the “maturity” of the life insurance industry. He refers to a pre-mature stage where the financial system was indeed modern but was lacking the incentives to develop the economy.29 Of course it is hard to define when a modern financial service turns “mature”. This licentiate thesis is however defining maturity as a quantitative and qualitative difference taking place within the industry, making possible a broad public use of life insurance. It is quite instrumentally defined as the point in time where demand for life insurance converges with the income elasticity of demand observed in the beginning of the 20th century. The licentiate thesis encompasses roughly the period from 1855-1914, but in some cases years before and after the period have been of interest and included in the study. The initiating year is the year of establishment of the first Swedish life insurance company and the closing year of the study is chiefly motivated by the introduction of the public pension system in Sweden 1913, which changed the conditions of the private life insurance market.30 The impact of the First World War did of course also change the state of affairs for the industry. This study is furthermore focusing on the Swedish development. By investigating the private insurance industry the immediate period before the expansion of the Swedish welfare state, this study offers a link between private insurance and the forthcoming system of public insurance characterizing the internationally well known Swedish welfare state.
26 Sylla (2002), p. 280. 27 Ögren (2005), pp. 64-93. 28 With the term “life insurance industry”, signifies all insurance companies that carried life insurance, which is: joint-stock companies, mutual companies and composite companies – companies carrying both fire- and life insurance. 29 Sylla (2002), p. 281. 30 Englund (1982), pp. 60-61, argues the most important change for the insurance industry in modern times to be the expansion of the public insurance system. Here, he only includes the impact of the public accident insurance on the private and the competition brought about by the state owned insurance institution Riksförsäkringsanstalten. There are some evidence however that the public pension system made it harder for insurance agents to sell private life insurance see Borgh (1913), p. 7.
13 1.5 Methods and sources
While this licentiate thesis comprises of two articles and a compounding text, a general overview regarding methods and sources is first outlined. Subsequently an in-depth analysis of methods and sources regarding the two articles is presented. There is a wide range of historical sources on the subject of insurance. The insurance industry has left behind books in the shape of company monographs; and journals, like the insurance industry journals Försäkringsföreningens tidskrift and Gjallarhornet. In this licentiate thesis, the insurance industry journal has been of major interest partly because of its statistical content and partly because of a specific interest in the members of the Swedish Insurance Society. Furthermore, proceedings of the insurance companies are preserved in archives. There is also a rich set of official statistics on the insurance industry and official parliamentary publications concerning regulations of the insurance industry. Insurance monographs have had a great importance in the making of this licentiate thesis and the writing of the same has a long tradition in Sweden. Almost every Swedish insurance company that ever existed, even if it were just for a few years, has their own monograph. The monographs on the other hand vary in extensiveness and quality and hold both different insurance statistics and discussions of values and goals of the company besides discussions of the society at large. Different monographs can have very different content and of small, short lived insurance companies, like Oden and Valand, there only remains a brief monograph more like a pamphlet, while the successful, large insurance companies like Skandia and Thule have produced several monographs with extensive statistical content. A to heavy utilisation of insurance monographs might therefore lead to an unbalanced picture of the development of the insurance industry, while it is generally acknowledged that the winners write the history. Insurance monographs also bring up the question of the dividing line between research and sources. For the sake of simplicity, all early insurance monographs are considered secondary sources in this study; but that is not to say that many insurance monographs not have a high qualitative content, like company monographs as: Lifförsäkrings-aktiebolaget Thule 1873-1898: festskrift vid bolagets tjugofemårsjubileum, I and II; Brand- and aktiebolaget Svea 1866-1916; Försäkringsaktiebolaget Skandia 1855-1930 I, II and Svenska lifförsäkringsanstalten Trygg 1899-1909. This selection rule means that modern insurance monographs like the ones on Skandia by Englund from 1982 and Kuuse and Olsson from 2002 are considered as previous research,
14 while there is a considerable qualitative difference between Englunds, Kuuse and Olssons work and several early monographs of insurance companies.31 Some early monographs must be considered tendentious and used with caution, especially relating to the company’s own description of events and conflicts. The insurance industry also documented their accomplishment collectively in journals and periodicals. The insurance industry journal documented the actions of the Swedish Insurance Society (Försäkringsföreningen) during the period 1878-1920, 1921 the journal changed its name to Nordic Insurance Journal (Nordisk Försäkrings Tidskrift). The journal is a rich source of historical data and contains annual statistics, like balance sheets of the companies. The journals however, as well possess a broad qualitative content. They give a valuable insight to the contemporary problems of the companies; to topics of interest and of conflict, by documenting meetings, discussions and lectures in the insurance organisation. Large volumes of historical material of the insurance industry have also been preserved in archives, namely in the Centre of trade and business history (Centrum för näringslivshistoria). Because of the many fusions of insurance companies, the proceedings of merged companies and bankrupt companies are gathered under two archival creators: Skandia and Scandinavian Private Bank (SEB). The Skandia archive primarily retains information regarding the joint-stock companies Skandia, Thule, Nordstjernan, Skåne and Svea. While SEB holds Trygg, Victoria and De Förenade. The archives keep a wide range of material, like board records and insurance registers. The material of some small and short-lived companies like Valand and Balder are however for ever lost. The archive has been visited, but because of the nature of the questions of this licentiate thesis, material of the archive has not been used, while the insurance industry journal was found to be the most informative source.32 From the year 1889-1903 the ministry of public administration also collected insurance statistics, more all-embracing then the one collected by the insurance industry journal. When the insurance industry got regulated by the state in 1903, the Swedish private insurance supervisory service (Försäkringsinspektionen) requested and compiled insurance statistics between the years 1903-1912.33 These data series was thereafter followed by Private
31 Kuuse & Olsson (2000) and Englund (1982). 32 Material of CfN is going to be used in the forthcoming articles. 33 Försäkringsinspektionen, Försäkringsinspektionens underdåniga berättelse till Kungl. Maj:t beträffande försäkringsväsendet i riket år 1903-1912, Stockholm.
15 insurance companies (Enskilda försäkringsanstalter) also published by the Swedish private insurance supervisory service 1914-1984.34 Insurance data has with other words been compiled by different organisations and authorities; this has unfortunately resulted in some incomplete series. One example is that data on insured persons ceased in 1911. Historical sources of the insurance industry also include official parliamentary publications. The main goal of the insurance business own organisation was to work towards an insurance legislation, and several insurance actors were also members of Parliament. The organisation also functioned as a consultation body. As illustrated above, the available sources are comprehensive and are well suited for engaging in both quantitative and qualitative research. The existing statistical material is of a considerable size and large parts has not yet been collected and analysed in previous research, the data, with other words, still holds the answer to a variety of different research questions of international interest. The belief is that the qualities of quantitative and qualitative methods combined give an enhanced explanatory power to this licentiate thesis, by study parts of the same phenomena but from two different perspectives and on two different levels. The methodological approach and evaluation of the sources regarding the specific articles are as follows:
1.5.1 Article I
The first article deals with the elasticity of demand in life and fire insurance during the period 1850 to 1950. In order to avoid certain difficulties when deflating consumer expenditure data from various household budget investigations, the share of food stuff is used as an indicator of the consumption space of the households. To estimate the elasticity in fire and life insurance we have used a two-step model based on data from household budget surveys and time series data on insurance premiums and consumption. First, the elasticity coefficients are estimated by an OLS-model on the household budget data, seven cross-sections between the years 1913- 1978. Secondly, the estimated coefficients are employed to back-cast household expenses on fire and life insurance during the period 1850 to 1950. To avoid dealing with aspects of
34 SOS, Enskilda försäkringsanstalter1914-1984 (Swedish Official Statistics Private Insurance), Försäkringsinspektionen, Stockholm.
16 deflation concerning changes in relative prices during the period of study, the back-cast is, as previously mentioned, based on food share. The estimated series on expenses are finally compared with the actual premium incomes derived from the Swedish life and fire insurance industry during the same period. The method of constructing time series based on cross-section estimations might imply methodological problems. The first obvious dilemma is the lack of cross-section estimations before 1913, which brings up a discussion regarding counterfactual methods. Counterfactual methods can sometimes be considered a-historic, by applying today’s notions on historical data by employing the pattern of demand from one period into another. The point of departure of the article is however not, that the pattern of demand had the same components throughout history, but to conclude that there were differences and instead focusing on a discussion how these differences can be explained. Other data, as data on premium and claims is derived from Bergander, the insurance industry journal and official statistics. When data has been unavailable, companies own collected data in monographs has been used. This has primarily been employed regarding the fire insurance industry established before or early in the twentieth century. In dealing with historical data, the data is very rarely complete. When it comes to data missing occasional years, additional estimates have been made. Assumptions have also been made in maintaining data concerning the foreign insurance business in Sweden.
1.5.2 Article II
The primary material in article two consists of official parliamentary publications, reports from the organisation for married property rights, the Home Journal (Tidskrift för hemmet renamed 1886 to Dagny) and the insurance industry journal (Försäkringsföreningens tidskrift). Moving first to the Parliamentary debates, as a selection rule, the bills selected and analysed was to be directly connected to the married women’s property act of 1874. All bills on married women’s property rights could not be included in this study considering the limitations put on an article. This selection rule resulted in three bills, one bill in 1873 and two bills in 1874. While the debates after the bills of 1874 are brief, the focus is mainly on the debate preceding the bill of 1873, a debate that lasted several hours and attracted general attention.
17 For illustrating the forthcoming political mentality and the continuously social engagement of life insurance actors, all parliamentary publications 1875 until 1920 are considered. The principles for the bills selected after 1874 are therefore solely that they illustrate the engagement of life insurance actors in women’s rights issues. The last bill from 1895 was selected while the life insurance industry was directly involved in the proposal. Moreover, the sources on the insurance industry are also very much appropriate for qualitative research. The monographs and journals are apposite for analysing the ideological values and goals of each company and the whole insurance industry combined. The method of analysing Parliamentary debates might in some cases be problematic while the voting and acting of Parliamentary members not always shows their true opinions. The insurance industry journal instead gives a unique possibility to study debates and arguments concerning a specific question before it were put forward in Parliament, this strengthens the reliability of the analysis. Other primary material used is the Home Journal and Dagny, which functioned as a spokesman for women’s movement. The organisation for married women’s property rights had their own report series, which were published in the home journal. This material is used to include how women’s movements were working and debating concerning the bills. The material from the home journal covers the period 1873-1895 and the number of volumes per year varies between six and four. The report series of the organisation for married women’s property rights encompasses the years 1874 until the discontinuance of the organisation in 1895. For the purpose of studying debates among insurance actors concerning issues related to married women’s property rights and laws concerning insurance contracts, the annual insurance journals are used. The first time the topics were up for discussion was 1884 and the last time 1906. Discussions regarding insurance contracts were by all means taking place after 1906 but without the dimension of improving for married women. A scope of this study is the identification of life insurance actors in the organisation for married women’s property rights. In doing so unpublished registers of members in the organisation has been used. These registers are handwritten by each member signing her or his own name. Some of these signatures have been hard or impossible to make out. But the objective of the article is not to map all members, the high representation of insurance actors must in either case be considered established. In further identifying the actors, registers in the insurance journal, over board members and agents, also have been used. To establish the life insurance actors’ social networks and
18 engagement in other social movements, biographies35, literature on social movements36 and reference books have been employed.37 This licentiate thesis does not however deny that there were other men than life insurance actors, engaged in women’s rights during the period of study. The focus is on life insurance actors and therefore the material selected is not representative for the regular Parliamentary proceedings during this time. Material of this type also primarily describes the makings of later or contemporary famous persons while the infamous but equal hard working passes unnoticed. The primary identities of some actors of this study were probably scientist, entrepreneurs, politicians or estate owner’s rather then life insurance actors. With other words they could be board members in life insurance companies on the side. But several of them obviously were willing to risk their capital in life insurance companies.
2. Previous research
One of the most debated questions in international research on life insurance is why the demand for life insurance seemed to have been lower compared to other types of insurance.38 Researches claim observing a gap between the establishment of the life insurance industry and its take-off or maturity. This phenomenon has been studied from several theoretical perspectives. The most common assumption is that the life insurance business would have been affected by the dynamics of growing incomes and urbanisation. The importance of income elasticity of demand in explaining the growth of insurance has been stressed by a number of scholars such as Keneley, in the case of the Australian life insurance market during the 1950s and 1960s,39 Beenstock, Dickinson and Khajura, where they argue that insurance activity is highly dependent on the level of domestic per capita income.40 Despite the number of demand side factors put forward, previous research has not been concerned with explicit testing of demand factors.
35 See Englund (1993) and Weidel Randver (1981). 36 See Skarstedt (1903). Linder (1918) and Bolin (1930). 37 See Bohman (1942). 38 The majority of researches claim life insurance to be “a sold good, not a bought good.” See Stalson (1942); Zelizer (1979) and Wright & Smith (2004). This notion has however also been challenged, Di Matteo & Emery argue that the life insurance was a sought asset, because of its role in the household portfolio during the course of the life cycle, Di Matteo & Emery (2002). 39 Kenely (2002), pp. 54-76. 40 Beenstock, Dickinson & Khajura (1988), pp. 259-272.
19 Non-quantitative factors have too been emphasized in explaining the demand for insurance and the slow development of the industry. To some researches the circumstances surrounding the life insurance seems contradictory. For example Wright and Smith claim life insurance should be the easiest insurance to sell, as everyone eventually dies. But not every house goes up in flames and not every ship sinks, still fire- and marine insurance got established on the market faster than life insurance both internationally and in Sweden.41 Zelizer claims demand for life insurance was hindered by moral and religious objections towards the industry and according to Stalson intensive marketing and an extensive system of insurance agents accounted for the increasing demand for life insurance in America during the 19th century. Murphy on the other hand addresses the significance of the changing social structures for the demand of life insurance in America, she consider the rise of the middle- class to be the driving force of demand for life insurance.42 Hägg argues the demand for regulation and supervision could be means of increasing the demand of consumers, while regulation fostered trust which was essential for the demand for trust-sensitive industries like insurance.43 Although social dimensions have been addressed, the direct interaction between the insurance industry and movements of social change has not been a matter of study, and Pearson and Richardson notes: “Few have attempted to examine the business population of a specific location in its entirety and systematically to analyse all its activities and economic, social, religious, political, cultural, and familial linkages.” They continue: “[…] there’s a lack of studies concerning collective diversification by fairly homogeneous business groups moving out of core trading or manufacturing activities into other areas”. The authors argue that such diversification was crucial to economic change. 44 This licentiate thesis further suggests that such diversification also was crucial to social change. The question of the second article is therefore if there is evidence for insurance actor involvement in social and political movements and, if that is the case, how tightly connected was their motives to those of the companies and their owners? Insurance actors recognized the problems for married women to claim the sum insured and the lack of regulations of insurance contracting. In answering the question of the second article, problems regarding insurance regulation becomes of interest.
41 Wright & Smith (2004), p. 21 and Lönnborg (1999), p. 62. 42 Murphy (2005), p. 262. 43 Hägg (1998), p. 82. 44 Pearson & Richardson (2002), p. 659.
20 Insurance regulation with focus on regulatory regimes and the role of institutions in the sense of insurance industry regulation are very well investigated areas in previous research on the insurance industry. Bergander in Försäkringsväsendet i Sverige from 1962, presents several insurance regulations during the period 1886-1927.45 He gives among other things a comprehensive overview regarding the establishment of the co-operation between companies and the agreement of self-regulation by for instance the Swedish Insurance Society (Svenska försäkringsföreningen). The lack of regulation of the insurance industry during the 19th century, made the industry itself create informal norms and rules of regulation. The insurance industry was practically self-regulated until 1903, while legislators tried to obtain a harmonisation of the Swedish laws with the ones in Norway and Denmark. The Swedish insurance society was constituted by insurance executives and other insurance actors, in the beginning just from join-stock companies, with the purpose to work towards an insurance legislation; the insurance industry was with other words very much involved in the legislative process. One reason for the wish to formulate an insurance legislation was that the joint-stock companies complied with the joint-stock company law of 1848, and the lack of regulation for mutual companies lead to conflicts between joint-stock insurance companies and mutual companies.46 This was the explanation for the involvement of insurance actors in the making of the law of 1903, according to Englund in Försäkring och fusioner (Insurance and fusions).47 In Den reglerade marknaden (The regulated market) from 1991, Larsson analyses the change and structural development of the insurance industry during the period 1850-1980. Focus is on the relation between the state and the financial market and the insurance regulation acts of 1903, 1917, 1948, although other regulations by the state besides the insurance regulation are mentioned.48 Regulations and public insurance had varied impact on the private insurance industry. The public accident insurance of 1918, for example, implied that private accident insurance companies became discriminated by a direct intervention of the state in the establishment of new accident insurance companies.49 The common feature of
45 Bergander (1967), pp. 346-365. 46 Larsson (1991), p. 102. 47 Englund (1982), pp. 52-53. 48 Larsson (1991), p. 29. 49 Larsson (1991), p. 28.
21 the insurance regulations was that they had the purpose of protecting the insured, but also the established companies through limiting what was perceived as unsound competition.50 In An institutional analysis of insurance regulation, from 1998, Hägg argues that decentralised enforcement mechanisms like the Swedish Insurance Society, promoted honest trade and valued long lasting relations and a good reputation. In the lack of state regulation the industry shared experiences and monitored each other.51 The dynamics of the market forced managers to act as they had the interest of consumers at heart. The reason for the co- operating insurance industry to later find it urgent to gain trust-support by public regulation was that the young insurance market had to rely on repeated exchange and reputation to be viewed as trustworthy. And in this case the life insurance companies faced stricter regulations than non-life insurers according to Larsson and Lönnborg.52 Although Hägg does not study the law of insurance contracting empirically, he theoretically argues that essential to insurance contracting are the notions of public trust and legal enforcement in the course of economic contracting. But the novelty in mixture with long-term contracts implied that trust in the insurer based on repetitive trade was not established among the general public. Hägg therefore claims that if the seller cannot persuade potential buyers to buy insurance due to a too low level of trust, the insurer will seek a third party to give guarantees or punish deviations from commitments and by this create the trust needed for the development of the industry.53 The main incentive for insurance regulation could therefore be explained as an institutional negative response of the public towards the industry, and a wish to realise economic cost benefits from improved insurance contracting, and greater certainty of legal enforcement and property rights.54 Lönnborg states that a primary goal of the private actors to promote a regulation of the insurance market was to reduce competition. This is also supported by Lindmark, Andersson and Adams who also claim that the early motivation for the Insurance Act of 1886 to be originated from the desire of insurance companies to promote their economic self-interests by tightening controls on market entry.55 But Hägg states however that the Swedish Insurance Society cannot be rejected as a cover-up for disguised motives not so honourable.56 Lindmark et. al. further argue that regulations imposed
50 Larsson (1998), p. 129. 51 Hägg (1998), pp. 186-188. 52 Larsson & Lönnborg (2008, forthcoming), p. 10. 53 Hägg (1998), pp. 215-218. 54 Hägg (1998), pp. 48-49. 55 Lönnborg (1999), p. 82. Lindmark, Andersson & Adams (2006), pp. 362-363. 56 Hägg (1998), p. 188.
22 subsequently by legislation could be interpreted as reflecting the will of the public administration to enhance its political power during a period of rapid economic and industrial change – for example, by impose controls on the industry and influencing its future direction in strategic areas of policy such as institutional investment.57 Lönnborg illustrates in Internationaliseringen av svenska försäkringsbolag (The internationalisation of Swedish insurance companies) from 1999, how the institutional change and the need to spread risks contributed to an international entry of Swedish insurance companies. Pearson and Lönnborg furthermore combine research on regulation and internationalisation and investigate the impact of regulatory regimes in the internationalisation of insurance before 1914.58 Parente and Prescott argue that the lack of monopoly rights in England contributed to the economic growth in the eighteenth century.59 Along with this reasoning Pearson and Lönnborg argue the internationalisation and growth of insurance was facilitated by deregulation. Besides deregulation, internalisation also got promoted by knowledge transfer between actuaries – often trained mathematics or astrologists that had acquired their knowledge abroad and other insurance actors.60 Lindmark et. al. also stress the role of the Swedish actuarial profession in affecting the regulatory and legal infrastructure of the industry. 61 As clearly displayed, previous economic history research on the Swedish insurance industry has shown a great interest in the regulations of the insurance industry. There also seems to be consensus regarding what kind of regulations that have been of key importance for the industry, namely the insurance regulations explicit dealing with regulations of the actions of the industry. The motive, the impact and the process towards these regulations are of course of outmost importance for our understanding of the development of the Swedish insurance market. Still other regulations that have received less or no attention from scholars must also be included in the analysis, simply because there are regulations that are likely to have shaped the industry in a way that so far have passed almost unnoticed in the historical documentation of the insurance industry.
57 Lindmark, Andersson & Adams (2006), p. 351. 58 Pearson & Lönnborg (2008), pp. 59-86. 59 Parente & Prescott (2002), p. 134. 60 The first executive of Skandia had been an agent for several English insurers according to Hägg (1998) p. 150. The corporate model of Thule was derived from a French life insurance company – Impériale. The Swedish company Victoria was influenced by the German much more successful company with the same name. Americans also went to Britain to learn banking and finance according to Sylla (2002) pp. 287-288. According to Larsson & Lönnborg (2008, forthcoming), p. 1.: “The Swedish case demonstrates an early integration within the international insurance market and the establishment of modern domestic organisations were imitated from European standards, especially from Great Britain and Germany”. 61 Lindmark , Andersson & Adams (2006), pp. 341-370.
23 The lack of regulation of insurance contracting and the potential problems associated with limited property rights for married women in receiving the sum insured, attracted attention among contemporary insurance actors as early as 1883 and procedures towards an insurance contracting law were initiated. But despite this phenomenon being corresponding with the much more investigated efforts to formulate an insurance regulation, research on the regulation of insurance contracting and the connection and impact of property rights on the life insurance transaction has so far been an unexplored issue. Insurance contracting is on the other hand considered as central for the regulation of the insurance industry in the United States during the 19th century.62 Although the regulation of for example 1903 could be argued to contribute to more effective property rights by e.g. solvency restrictions and independent regulation by the State Insurance Inspectorate, the ongoing debates and problems addressed by insurance actors on the topic of insurance contracting during the 19th century, cannot be ignored. Nor the united efforts of insurance actors and the women’s movements in the ambition to strengthen the property rights for married women. Institutional theory stresses the importance of certain regulations for a well-functioning capitalist system. The most important regulation is however according to scholars like Douglass C. North clearly identifiable property rights. Despite this, insurance researchers have not this far been concerned with comprehensive studies on how the conditions of property rights got shaped by, or shaped the insurance industry. This is especially relevant concerning one of the most fundamental issues regarding the insurance transaction – who has the right to the sum insured? It has been taken for granted that property rights in Sweden was clearly enough defined in the end of 19th century to support a financial expansion, and therefore no further study of the impact of property rights has been conducted. But on the contrary, a large group of women, the married women to be precise, did not have sufficient property rights for the life insurance transaction or the financial system to function perfectly. These women were certainly the intended beneficiaries when life insurance was marketed. The ways exercised by insurance actors to propagate for improved property rights, in some cases implied membership in the women’s movement. The period of study was thus characterized both by transformation concerning financial and social matters. On the topic of social transformation, this period experienced an enhanced activity of social movements working for improved rights for blue-collar workers and women.
62 Keller (1961), p. 318.
24 Regarding the financial transformation, banks and insurance companies entered the market in large numbers and a financial deepening took place. Although these transformations, the social and financial, co-existed and although insurance actors were part of these progressive, social movements, no attempt to study this interaction and to evaluate its importance has been put forward. The ambition of this licentiate thesis is therefore to suggest a theoretical framework that makes it possible to connect social and financial history by addressing the importance of useful knowledge in the development of the financial market. This does not only imply acknowledging the general dynamics of social change in the development of the life insurance industry. It even means recognizing the importance of social movements, seemingly far from the activities of the financial market, in the process towards the take-off and maturity of the life insurance industry.
3. Useful knowledge and the financial economy
Technological innovation is according to a majority of scholars a pre-condition for economic growth. Pearson observes that compared to the attention denoted to industrial innovation, there has been limited investigation of the process of innovation in financial services.63 A point of departure of this licentiate thesis is however that social and financial history cannot be separated; and in the ambition to investigate the impact of demand side factors and emphasise the significance of social forces for financial development, this licentiate thesis will rather focus on the conditions for innovation, which according to Mokyr is useful knowledge. Mokyr further argues that the industrial revolution was not driven only by the surfacing of technological ideas, but also by the improved access to these ideas in society at large.64 The framework of this thesis is therefore to a large extent derived from the theories of Mokyr on the evolution of the knowledge economy.65 What separated earlier clusters of economic growth with the industrial revolution was according to Mokyr, theoretically, a transformation in the relationship between propositional knowledge (what), and prescriptive knowledge (how), a process which could lead to innovations. Instead of the elite controlling the knowledge, it got offered to a general public a development that enhanced the probability and quantity of innovations, while it reduced
63 Pearson (1997), pp. 235-236. 64 Mokyr (2005), p. 285. 65 Others have stressed the relation between knowledge, technological progress and economic growth. Easterlin (1981), pp. 1-19, argues that mass schooling facilitated the acquisition and application of knowledge about new production techniques associated with the emergence of modern economic growth. Musgrave (1967), pp. 252- 253, shows how technological innovations made demands on the educational system and the labour force.
25 access cost, broadened the epistemic base and improved efficiency by reducing the risk of “reinventing the wheel”.66 With the society possessing a broad epistemic base, it was a greater chance that propositional knowledge would lead to sustained improvements in prescriptive knowledge. And most importantly, these improvements did not only concern economic dimensions, it also included social improvement, alleviating the conditions for the poor and unfortunate.67 The forces behind this improved access to knowledge were according to Mokyr the impact of enlightenment.68 This in turn fostered open science and democratic ideas which added fuel to the industrial revolution. An important concept of this study is useful knowledge. As this concept has denoted a variety of things in the economic history literature, clarification regarding its usage in this licentiate thesis is necessary.69 This thesis is going to define useful knowledge in accordance with the definition made by Mokyr. Mokyr distinguish on one hand knowledge accumulated in observing natural phenomena; by establish regularities in the environment. This definition also includes “technologies” like life insurance marketing. The other definition concerns knowledge achieved regarding social facts and phenomena. Mokyr claims economic knowledge (price, rates etc.) should be included in this definition, as it is necessary for efficient production and distribution.70 The argumentation of Mokyr has therefore also an obvious application on the financial expansion, of Sylla referred to as the financial revolution. But economic knowledge is not only important for production and distribution. This study argues that useful knowledge furthermore constituted the base for the demand and consumption of life insurance. Hägg explains this situation with the prime move dilemma, which refers to a situation where consumers, because of incomplete information, are unable to rank the quality of insurers and refrain from exchange because of a too low level of trust. The prime move problem therefore may prevent the market from evolving. With other words, for a financial service or innovation to have a continuously bearing in society, the major public must have gained enough knowledge of financial matters to be able to demand e.g. a life insurance.
66 Mokyr (2002), p. 9. 67 Mokyr (2005), pp. 290-291. 68 Mokyr (2005), p. 296, defines enlightenment as: “[…] a belief in the possibility and desirability of economic progress and growth through knowledge.” 69 Among others Kuznets (1965) uses useful knowledge as synonymous with “tested” knowledge and Prescott et. al. (2000) p. 133, talks about useful best-practice knowledge. 70 Mokyr (2002), pp. 2-4.
26 Sandberg (1979) also stresses in his case of “the impoverished sophisticate”, the importance of a broad epistemic base, or: “[…] a strikingly large stock of human and institutional capital” in explaining the high GNP in mid-nineteenth century Sweden.71 He also claims that the very high elasticity of supply of financial services was directly related to the existing high levels of human capital.72 This framework therefore suggests that the key for explaining the development of the insurance industry lied in what people knew or did not know. To illustrate: An individual do not need to achieve a specific knowledge to buy e.g. shoes, that is regardless of if the shoes have been made by using the latest technology available or not. The fact is that it is still just shoes, irrespective of how they were made. Buying a life insurance demanded and still demands of the consumer to achieve a greater level of knowledge of the service than buying a pair of shoes.73 For buying a life insurance the customer needed to know rates, premium levels and how the different kinds of insurances functioned. For buying a pair of shoes the only thing the customer needed to know was shoe size. The question is what impact this acquired knowledge for buying a life insurance had on the development of the life insurance industry in the 19th century Sweden. In the following articles the impact and importance of useful knowledge for the development of the life insurance industry is elaborated. The framework of useful knowledge is in the first article going to be used to investigate dynamics not only possible to refer to by using economic explanations. The dimensions of reduced access costs and the impact of a general financial knowledge in society at large will be discussed. In the second article, the framework is used to investigate how useful knowledge was diffused on a micro-level. The article focus on how useful knowledge started to entail, among other things, thoughts of the enlightenment that favoured extended rights for women and blue-collar workers. The article treats how useful knowledge gave rise to the inclusion of marginalised groups in the making of the new financial economy. For example the diffusion of the life insurance to broader groups in society and the struggle for married women’s property rights.
71 Sandberg (1979), p. 225. 72 Sandberg (1979), pp. 227-228. 73 Stalson (1942), p. 24, argues in a similar way when he discusses the importance of understanding the uncertainty of life: “We do not have to understand very much to respond to the desire for food. But we must understand to respond for, let us say credit insurance. In the former case an understanding of what is wanted is so universal that it goes unnoticed, but credit insurance could never be desired except by someone who had a wide background of training which would make him perceive the need for and the desirability of buying it”.
27
Article 1: Insurance and income growth: the case of Sweden 1830-1950
28 Insurance and income growth: the case of Sweden 1830- 1950∗
Lars Fredrik Anderssona,
Liselotte Erikssona
Magnus Lindmarka,
a Department of Economic History, Umeå University, Sweden
∗ An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Swedish Economic History Conference in Stockholm, October 2007. Paper has been submitted to the Scandinavian Economic History Review.
29 Abstract
In this paper we investigate supply and demand factors that have been put forward to explain the growth of insurance markets during the financial revolution. We conclude that income growth, urbanisation, changes in risk and price are not sufficient to explain Swedish insurance market growth prior to 1900. Instead, we argue that cultural factors, i.e. the dismantling of ideas and business cultures based on the estates of the realms was essential for explaining the growth of insurance markets foremost between 1855 and 1900.
Key Words
Insurance history; insurance; the financial revolution; Swedish economic history; household budget survey; historical national accounts
30 Introduction
It has been argued that financial revolutions – the emergence of modern financial systems – preceded the transition to modern high growth rates (Sylla, 2002; Rosseau & Sylla,
2006).74 The evolution of well-managed public finances, stable money, a central bank, a banking system, securities markets and a sound insurance system therefore appear as a crucial trigger for economic development. Recent research suggests that financial revolutions were important even in small economies. This is reasonable since economic historical literature have reported that financial intermediation assisted economic development in the early years of industrialization by, amongst other things, mobilizing savings, mitigating risk and uncertainty, encouraging entrepreneurship, accumulating productive capital, and fostering the development of the national financial and legal infrastructure.75
Although insurance may have gained less attention in the academic literature than, for instance, central and private banking, it did nevertheless play an important role in the transformation of the 19th century economies in Western Europe and North America markets.
By making risks accountable, insurance aids economic activities such as investments and by investing insurance funds the insurance industry provides an important financial intermediation function.76
74 Sylla, Richard, Financial Systems and Economic Modernization. The Journal of Economic History Vol 62, 2002: 2, 277-292, Rousseau, Peter L., Sylla, Richard, Financial revolutions and economic growth: Introducing this EEH Symposium. Explorations in Economic History 43, 2006:1, 1-12. 75 Pearson, Robin, Fire Insurance and the British Textile Industries during the Industrial Revolution, Business History, 34, 1992: 4, 1-19., Pearson, Robin, Taking Risks and Containing Competition: Diversification and Oligopoly in the Fire Insurance Markets of the North of England in the Early 19th C, Economic History Review, 26, 1993:2, 39-64., Pearson Robin, Insuring the Industrial Revolution: fire insurance in Great Britain, 1700- 1850. Aldershot, Ashgate, 2004., Smith, Bruce.D., and Stutzer, Michael.J., 1995. A Theory of Mutual Formation and Moral Hazard with Evidence from the History of the Insurance Industry, Review of Financial Studies, 8, 1995:4, 545-577. 76 Arestis, Philip, and Demetriades, Panicos. Financial Development and Economic Growth: Assessing the Evidence, Economic Journal, Vol. 107, 1997:442, 783-799.
31 It has been suggested that Sweden’s financial revolution took place in the 1860s with the e.g. liberalisation of banking and the abolishment of interest rate control in 1864.77 Later research has further underlined the complexity of the interplay between Swedish private and central banking.78 The Swedish financial revolution also preceded industrialisation. Although banks expanded already from the early 19th century, Gårdlund showed in his seminal works that banks came to play a more important role as investors in the manufacturing industry from the 1890s.79
The emergence of nationwide insurance companies around the 1860s is on basis of
Sylla’s (2006) definitions certainly part of the Swedish financial revolution. An understanding of the character of the financial revolution therefore makes it important to study the forces that promoted the development and growth of insurance markets. This paper contributes to the literature by quantifying the factors that may have, according to previous studies, fostered the growth of insurance markets. The results may also be used for developing hypotheses regarding other aspects of the financial expansion as well.
The remainder of our paper is organised as follows. In the next section we provide an outline of determinants that have been suggested to play an important role in the growth of insurance markets. The third and fourth sections outline the method and data employed to examine the factors put forward. The fifth section and sixth sections provide the results, while the last section concludes.
77 Sandberg, Lars.G., The Case of the Impoverished Sophisticate: Human Capital and Swedish Economic Growth before World War I, Journal of Economic History 39, 1979:4, 225-241. 78 Ögren Anders, Free or central banking? Liquidity and financial deepening in Sweden, 1834–1913, Explorations in Economic History, 43, 2006: 1, pp. 64–93. 79 Gårdlund, Torsten, Svensk industrifinansiering under Genombrottsskedet: 1830-1913 (Financing the Swedish Manufacturing Industry during the Break-Through Period 1830-1913). Victor Pettersons Bokindustriaktiebolag: Stockholm 1947.
32 The financial revolution and the growth of insurance markets
In previous research, numerous supply and demand factors have been put forward to explain the growth of insurance markets. Income growth and demographic changes are often regarded as key determinants of insurance demand. Kindleberger argues, for instance, that the demand for banking (and indeed, insurance) services in Sweden emerged from major urban trading centres such as Stockholm and Gothenburg and was driven by foreign capital80 He therefore questioned the impoverished sophisticate view advocated by Sandberg. Instead
Kindleberger’s argument can be viewed as one putting more emphasis on general economic development. Stripped down to its basics this view stresses income elasticises of demand and on the other hand differences between rural and urban demand for financial services. In a study based on Canadian data for 1895 it was shown that such a difference existed and that it could be explained by different possibilities for self insurance especially in life insurance.81
Since industrialisation went hand in hand with an increasing importance of human capital related to tangible assets (such as fields, livestock) this reduced the possibility of relying on self insurance through accumulation of personal wealth in the form of tangible assets.
Accordingly, industrialisation turned life insurance to an appealing option for many families.
The importance of population and income growth is also stressed for later periods, as in the case of the Australian life insurance market during the 1950s and 1960s.82 The bottom line is that income elasticity of demand matters. We have however not found any attempts to measure the income elasticity of insurance demand in historical data. Despite the fact that income growth probably was important for promoting insurance demand during the financial revolution, it is not known how important income growth was in relation to other factors. As
80 Kindleberger, Charles P., Sweden in 1850 as an ‘Impoverished Sophisticate’: Comment, Journal of Economic History 42, 1982: 4, 918-920. 81 Di Matteo, Livio and Emery, Herbert J.C., Wealth and the Demand for Life Insurance: Evidence from Ontario, 1892, Explorations in Economic History 39, 2002: 4, 446-469. Note: self insurance means not insuring with insurance companies. 82 Keneley Monica, Adaptation and change in the Australian life insurance industry: an historical perspective Accounting, Business & Financial History 14, 2004: 1, 91–109.
33 far as we can judge, the importance often given to income growth is a generalisation of results based on contemporary data, such as the cross-sectional study of 45 countries (including
Sweden) for 1981.83 Here it is reported that insurance activity is highly dependent on the level of domestic per capita income. Especially worth attention is a Swiss-re report that suggests that the income elasticity of insurance demand in developing countries such as India and
China is close to one.84 This means that insurance premiums are developing roughly in line with the income growth. This is interesting in a historical comparative perspective. Sweden’s per capita income was in the 1920s is comparable with Chinese per capita income in 1999 and in the 1880s with the India per capita income in 1999.85 Accordingly, we would expect that the Swedish income elasticity of insurance demand was close to one between the 1880s and
1920s, if we assume that income growth was equally important for insurance demand in historical Sweden as in contemporary China and India. This suggests a paradox. If Richard
Sylla is right that financial revolutions are preceding economic development and that the financial revolution can be measured as the growth of financial markets, the income elasticity of demand must historically have been higher than one at low incomes. Alternatively, other factors than income must have affected demand during the financial revolution.
Two such factors are the price and risk elasticity respectively. These are defined as the response of insurance demanders due to changes in price, at a given risk and the response of insurance demanders due to changes in risk, at a given price (Pauly et al 2003).86 It is likely that various risks, pertaining to the likelihood of the occurrence of disastrous events such as fire and premature death, were reduced in the time period studied.
83 Beenstock, Michael, Dickinson, Gerry and Khajura, Sayaj, The Relationship between Property-Liability Insurance Premiums and Income: An International Analysis, Journal of Risk and Insurance 55, 1988:2, 259-272. 84 Sigma, World Insurance in 1997. Booming life insurance business, but stagnating fire business. Swiss re 1999. 85 Maddison, Angus, The World Economy: Historical Statistics, OECD Development Centre, Paris 2003. 86 Pauly et al (2003) Price, elasticity of demand for term life insurance and adverse selection. NBER, working Paper 9925.
34 It is also likely that insurance prices underwent changes during the period due to factors that affect the supply side of the insurance market. Informational cost advantages were provided by the development and application of actuarial science in the mid-eighteenth century. The U.K. mortality tables (that were initially used in Sweden) enabled companies to more accurately set actuarially fair premiums, better manage and improve corporate solvency through adequate reserving.87 Besides this, risks became easier to monitor as the insurance business was growing. In addition to actuarial techniques also risk assessment, corporate governance and even insurance regulation and supervision promoting trust has been suggested as important factors for the development of the insurance market. In Sweden the first regulation of importance appeared in 1903, but insurance companies had since the 1870s collaborated on principles such a financial publicity and principles for reserving.88 To this may be added various measures to deal with moral hazard and adverse selection which can be assumed to have developed as the markets were growing. Therefore, also issues associated with the pricing of insurance are dealt with in the article.
Finally, the literature has stressed that the stock of knowledge about and general acceptance of modem financial institutions and procedures greatly facilitated their fast expansion in Sweden during the period of rapid economic growth after 1850.89 Mokyr further argues that economic growth was due to a diminishing access costs in society at large in acquiring useful knowledge. 90 Both Sandberg and Mokyr claim financial knowledge and the diffusion of financial knowledge towards the public to be central for financial growth. These aspects of insurance demand and will be discussed after the quantitative factors are analysed.
87 Supple, Barry, The Royal Exchange Assurance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970. 88 Lindmark, Magnus, Andersson, Lars Fredrik., Adams, Mike B., The Evolution and Development of the Swedish Insurance Market, Accounting, Business & Financial History 16, 2006:3, 341-370. 89 Sandberg (1979) p. 232. 90 Mokyr, Joel, The Gifts of Athena: historical origins of the knowledge economy. Princton University Press: Princeton and Oxford, 2002, 2-4. Useful knowledge can according to Mokyr also be knowledge about insurance marketing and other kinds of economic and financial knowledge about i.e. rates and price.
35 The study is limited to the period 1830 to1950, which covers the period during which the Swedish financial revolution assumingly took place. The extended period provides a reasonable number of observations in order to validate the results.
Method
To analyse the demand for insurance, we first estimate income elasticity of demand for insurance on data gathered from 20th century household budget surveys (HBS). Secondly, the estimated elasticity is used in a counterfactual model of total insurance premiums spanning from 1830 to 1950. The estimated premiums in the counterfactual demand/supply model are then compared with actual premiums. Finally, the deviations are analysed by measures of price and risk.
The estimation of elasticity of demand is based on a panel dataset of seven household budget surveys accomplished during the period 1913 and 1978. In order to avoid problems pertaining to deflation of consumption baskets with changing composition, the operational model utilises consumption shares of food and insurance respectively. This approach is further motivated by results showing that income elasticity of foodstuffs is particularly stable over time, why the consumption share of foodstuffs is a reliable indicator of real incomes.91
In line of these arguments we estimate:
PS α β1 ++= β 2 M + β3 R Β+ 4 DDDFS T
(1) where PS is the expenditure share of insurance premiums (of total expenditure). To account for differences in insurance, we have separated fire insurance (PS1) and life insurance (PS2). FS is the expenditure share of foodstuffs and DM is a dummy for methodological differences
91 Costa, Dora.L. Estimating Real Income in the United States from 1888 to 1994: Correcting CPI Bias Using Engel Curves, Journal of Political Economy 109, 2001: 6, 1288- 1310; Hamilton, Bruce W., Using Engel’s Law to Estimate CPI Bias, The American Economic Review 91, 2001:3, 619-630.
36 introduced in the household budget surveys in 1958. DR is a dummy for rural population (1 for rural and 0 for urban population). DT is a dummy for time.
Given that the estimates in model (1) are significant at the one per cent level for the food share and the rural share, they are multiplied with the time series of actual food share and the actual rural population share along with the constants:
CPST α β1 AFST β 2 DM +++= β 3 ARS RT + Β 4 DT
(2) where CPS is the counterfactual share of premiums expenditure share in time t, AFS is the actual food share and ARS is the actual share of rural population. The counterfactual model covers the period 1830 to 1950 and food share and rural population share is based on national aggregates. First, we calculate the food expenditure share (AFS) in year (T) as:
CLT AFST = CT
(3) where CL is the aggregated private consumption foodstuffs expenditure in current prices, and
C is the aggregated private consumption. CLT is calculated as:
LT AT IT MIT +++= CCCCC MAT
(4) where CA is the private consumption of agricultural output, inclusive of hunting and fishing and horticulture, but exclusive of forestry products, CI is the private consumption of foodstuffs industries output, CM,I is the private consumption of imported foodstuffs industries products and CM,A is the private consumption of imported agricultural products, exclusive of forestry products.
In addition, the demand for insurance may be different depending on the proportion of people living in cities and in rural areas. To account for changes in this proportion i.e. urbanisation, the share of people living in rural areas (of total population) is measured. Based
37 on the actual rural population share and the actual food share inserted in equation 2, we finally arrive at the counterfactual insurance premiums (CP) in time (t) as:
t ⋅= CCPCP TST
(5) where CPt is compared with the actual insurance premiums in fire and life insurance over the period 1830 to 1950.
Data
The data used for estimating (1) are, as previously mentioned, constructed from a series of household budget surveys (HBS). These surveys were until 1958, based on records of expenditure (kassaböcker) distributed to a sample of households. The households therefore reported all consumption of goods and services, including consumption of stored foodstuff. Social political objectives were main motivations for these surveys until the late
1950s. Besides the primary objective to gain information on the distribution of expenditure on different types of goods and services in various social classes, there were additional objectives such as providing information of nutrition standards and identification of high cost cities. Since social objectives were important in the early investigations there were no ambitions to cover a representative population sample. Furthermore, the investigations did not attempt to geographically cover all parts of the country. Instead of using a sampling method that allowed such generalisations, the investigations were aimed at certain social groups as for instance working class household in cities or poorer household on the countryside.
From 1958 there was an attempt to adapt the HBSs to the standards used in the national accounts. This meant that deliverances, accounting for goods and services paid for, became the dominating estimation principle. Furthermore, the sampling methods were
38 changed during the period in order to obtain a representative sample of the total population with respect to incomes and geographical distribution.
In 1951 life insurance premiums were for the first time treated as saving and not, as previously, as consumption. In the empirical investigation we have for reasons of consistency consequently followed the older principle. The methodological changes introduced in the 1950s do nevertheless motivate the methodological dummy in (1).
All HBS present data on consumption divided on aggregated income classes or (HBS 1920) on types of employment. This means that for each HBS there are between four and nine observations readily available. Since we organise that data after the consumption share of foodstuffs we ensure consistency even though the span of aggregated income classes and their number varies between the investigations.
This article is based on the HBSs of 1913, 1920, 1923, 1933, 1948, 1951, 1958, 1969 and 1978.92 Of these, HBS in 1920 and 1951 covered the countryside, a circumstance that are taken advantage of in this investigation by introducing the countryside dummy in (1) Worth noticing is that HBS 1941 is excluded, since it only provides rudimentary information on insurance expenditure and was mainly used for war planning. Based on these HBS the variables are defined as follows from table 1.
Table 1. Descriptive statistics of variables derived from household budget surveys.
Abbreviate Variable Mean St dev.
Y1 Expenditure share of life insurance (of total consumption) 2,195951 0,998832
92 Sveriges Officiella Statistik, Socialstyrelsen. Levnadskostnaderna i Sverige 1913-1914. (Les budgets de ménage en Suède en 1913-1914) Stockholm, 1919; Sveriges Officiella Statistik, Socialstyrelsen, 1923. Levnadskostnaderna på landsbygden i Sverige vid år 1920. (Les frais d'existence à la campagne suédoise en 1920), Stockholm 1923; Sveriges Officiella Statistik, Socialstyrelsen, Levnadskostnaderna i städer och industriorter omkring år 1923 (Les budgets de ménage dans les villes et dans les agglomérations industrielles vers 1923). Sveriges Officiella Statistik, Stockholm, 1929; Sveriges Officiella Statistik, Socialstyrelsen Levnadskostnaderna i tätortshushåll år 1948. Sveriges Officiella Statistik, Stockholm 1953; Sveriges Officiella Statistik, Socialstyrelsen, Levnadskostnaderna på landsbygden år 1951 (Family expenditure in rural districts, 1951) Sveriges Officiella Statistik, Stockholm 1955; Sveriges Officiella Statistik Socialstyrelsen. Hushållens konsumtion år 1958 (The consumption of households in 1958), Stockholm, 1961; Swedish official Statistics, Household budget surveys (1980) Sveriges Officiella Statistik Statistiska Centralbyrån, 1980. Hushållsbudgetundersökningen 1978 (The family expenditure survey 1978) LiberFörlag/Allmänna förlaget, Stockholm 1980.
39 Y2 Expenditure share of fire insurance (of total consumption) 0,161994 0,067254 FS Expenditure share of foodstuff (of total consumption) 38,83129 11,5521
Dr Dummy for people living in rural areas (1 for rural, 0 for urban)
Dt Dummy for differences in time of households surveys (1913, 1920 etc) Note: N=33, household budget data 1913-1951
.Source: Swedish Official Statistics, Household budget Surveys, 1913, 1920, 1923, 1933, 1948 and 1951.
The table shows that the expenditure share of life insurance is higher on average than fire insurance and also that the standard deviation of life insurance is greater. The expenditure share of foodstuff is about one third of total consumption although the deviations from the mean are quite large.
The Swedish Historical National Accounts data comprises the latest dataset.93 These series include a division on final consumption of output from approximately 50 production activities, including insurance. Consumption of food stuffs was directly obtained by adding direct domestic consumption from agriculture, horticulture and food stuffs industries.
Missing in Krantz and Schön’s latest version of SHNA is use of imports for final consumption, which in our investigation, is essential for estimating the foodstuff consumption share. The problem was addressed by using Schön’s unpublished series from
1984, which covers both agriculture and food stuff industries during the period 1830 to
1871.94 Schön’s series are directly followed by corresponding series according to
Johansson’s Historical National Accounts.95 Thus, we are using the best available sources for total food consumption and total consumption.
For estimating the shares of imports for final consumption we used the 1920 foreign trade statistics and divided imported agricultural goods and food stuffs on final and intermediate consumption. Furthermore, we assumed the main division of food stuff and
93 Krantz, Olle and Schön, Lennart, Swedish historical national accounts 1800-2000, Lund studies in economic history 41, Almqvist & Wiksell International: Lund 2007. 94 Schön, Lennart, Historiska nationalräkenskaper för Sverige: Utrikeshandel (Historical National Accounts for Sweden: Foreign Trade), mimeo, Ekonomisk-Historiska institutionen, Lund 1984. 95 Johansson, Östen, The gross domestic product of Sweden and its composition 1861-1955, Stockholm Economic Studies, Stockholm 1967.
40 agricultural goods for final consumption to be constant through out the investigated period.96 In line with these considerations, we arrive at the descriptive statistics presented in table 2.
Table 2. Descriptive statistics of variables derived from historical national accounts. Abbreviation Variable Mean St.dev. FS Expenditure share of foodstuff (of total consumption in per cent 35 10 Aggregated private consumption foodstuffs expenditure in thousand CL SEK 960 991 1 005 420 C Aggregated private consumption in thousand SEK 3 821 646 5 005 735 Private consumption of agricultural output, inclusive of hunting and fishing and horticulture, but exclusive of forestry products in CA thousand SEK 72 519 79 570 Private consumption of foodstuffs industries output in thousand CI SEK 608 407 768 065 Private consumption of imported foodstuffs industries products in CM,I thousand SEK 7 792 12 668
Private consumption of imported agricultural products, exclusive of CM,A forestry products in thousand SEK 532 789 Note: N= 120, Historical National Accounts data 1830-1950. Source: Krantz and Schön (2006), Schön (1984), Johansson (1967)
SHNA can also be consulted for consumption of insurance services.97 We believe that the series are basically correct, but since they are value added estimates they are in principle not fully compatible with the expenditure data. Instead, premium incomes are preferred.
From 1903 it became compulsory for all insurance companies to report detailed economic data to the authorities. From this year a full coverage of insurance business in
Sweden is readily available. However, following the UK example of volunteer reporting, several major Swedish companies had already in the 1870s begun to report financial data in the insurance industry journal Svensk försäkringstidskrift. This practice was strengthened in
96 Using import statistics from 1924, we have divided the agriculture goods and foodstuff between investments, intermediate consumption and final consumption. The share of final consumption is 24 per cent for agricultural goods and the share of final consumption is 54 per cent for food stuff. We assume that the share of final consumption is constant during the period 1830-1950. 97 Krantz, Olle, Historiska nationalräkenskaper för Sverige: Privata tjänster och bostadsutnyttjande 1800-1980 (Historical National Accounts for Sweden. Private Services and Housing 1800-1980). Studentlitteratur: Lund 1991.
41 1889, when also minor mutual fire support funds started to report economic information.
Most of this information has been collected by Bengt Bergander and is used for our estimate.98
We have, however, been forced to make some additional estimates for obtaining total series. Data on foreign companies operating in Sweden are not accessible before 1887.
Bergander however argues that foreign companies held a comparatively small market share in the mid nineteenth century. For the 1890s we know that foreign insurers earned approximately 10 percent of the total insurance premiums generated on the Swedish market.
On basis of Bergander’s conclusion that the foreign insurance business were limited in size as late as in the 1850s, and that market shares were modest some forty years later, we can assume that the foreign companies roughly followed the development of Swedish companies, but at a slightly lower rate.
We therefore assumed that the development of the foreign companies on the Swedish market resembled the development of the old Swedish mutual companies, of which
Allmänna Änke- och pupillkassan (AÄPK) was the most important life insurance fund and
Stockholms Stads Brandkontor was one of the most important fire insurance companies.99
As noted previously, insurance is divided into life and fire insurance. In life insurance we have not included pension insurance. Fire insurance includes only insurance finally consumed by households such as fire insurance, liability insurance (foremost vehicles insurance) and fire accident insurance. Therefore intermediate consumption in industry and agriculture such as maritime, live stock and hail storm is excluded. Social insurance, including pension systems, health insurance is excluded for several reasons. Firstly, since
98 Bergander, Bengt, Försäkringsväsendet i Sverige 1814-1914. Wesmanns Skandinaviske Forsikringsfond: Lund 1967.
99 Änke- och Pupillkassan (Archive) Allmänna Änke- och Pupillkassans i Sverige Arkiv (Riksarkivet) (Huvudböcker) (The Central Swedish Archive of the Public Widows and Orphans Fund (Main Books)), Archive Reference: SE/RA/730005/730005.01/G I: Stockholm; Almquist, Johan.Axel Stockholms Stads Brandförsäkringskontor 1746-1921 (The City of Stockholm Fire Insurance Office, 1746-1921). P. A. Nordstedts och söner: Stockholm 1921.
42 premiums for such insurances are per definition public consumption, they should not be considered from a household expenditure point of view. Secondly, the vast expansion of social insurance took place in the post war period which is not subject for our analysis.
Data on premium and claims are based on large mutual and stock companies up till
1912 are collected from Bergander and thereafter data for all companies operating in
Sweden are collected from the official statistics.100 Small mutual companies in fire insurance (n=368) held a market share of 7 per cent in 1912. The load value in fire insurance is covering a sample of 6 mutual and stock companies during the period 1830 to 1913.
These companies had a market share of 86 per cent in 1913 and fire insurance was the dominant line of fire insurance at that time. The load value in life insurance is covered by a sample of three life insurance companies during the period 1860 to 1905. These three companies had a market share of 55 per cent in 1900. As the major part of the market is coved, we believe that changes in load value in life and fire insurance is indicated.
The demand for insurance
The relationship between budget shares for foodstuffs and insurance is shown in table 3.
Expected negative signs are reported for the food stuff share in all models, showing positive income elasticity of insurance demand. The explanatory power is higher for life insurance
R 2 ≈ 81.0 as compared to fire insurance R 2 ≈ 81.0 . In comparison, Thomasson (2002) reports
R 2 ≈ 77.0 in her model for U.S. health insurance demand.101 Turning to the estimated coefficients, it is evident from table 3 that life insurance has a higher income elasticity of demand as compared to fire insurance. This is compatible with the higher growth rates
100 Sveriges Officiella Statistik, Enskilda Försäkringsanstalter (Swedish Official Statistics Private Insurance), periodical, Stockholm. (1912-1950) 101 Thomasson, Melissa, A., From Sickness to Health: the Twentieth-century development of the Demand for Health Insurance, The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 60, 2000:2, 504-508.
43 reported for life insurance during the 19th century, and not as such a surprising result as fire insurance is often essential, while life insurance is discretionary.
The method dummy is significant in all models. This shows that the new methodologies for constructing the household budgets that were introduced in the 1950s is affecting the results with respect to levels but not with respect to elasticises.
Table 3. Coefficient estimate household budget surveys 1913-1951
Fire insurance Life insurance Value Std. Error Pr(>|t|) Value Std. Error Pr(>|t|) Intercept 0.0334 0.0087 0.0007 0.3986 0.1321 0.0055 Food -0.0052 0.0007 0.0000 -0.0802 0.0110 0.0000 Rural -0.0002 0.0002 0.4766 -0.0010 0.0032 0.7662 Year 0.0000 0.0000 0.0018 -0.0001 0.0001 0.0136
The rural dummy is not significant for life insurance and barely fire insurance.
However, we should remind the reader of the limited number of observations including the rural dummy, why insignificant estimates should not be interpreted as if the rural dimension of life-insurance demand is not important. It may however be concluded that demand for fire insurance is positively correlated with the rural dummy. This can be explained in line with Di
Matteo and Emery’s (2001) argument that self insurance was more important in rural areas, mainly through more wealth kept in tangible assets, such as farming houses, growing crops, livestock and forest required which in turn required insurance. The time dummy is significant for fire at the one per cent level and for life at the five per cent level. However, as the value for fire is zero, and close to zero in life insurance the economic significance is missing or doubtful.
Based on the result in table 3 and data on food share, we have compiled a series of counterfactual insurance premiums for the period 1830 to 1950. The rural dummy as well as the time dummy is excluded as they are not significant at the one per cent level. The time dummy for fire is excluded as the value is zero.
44 The fire insurance covers both the household and the business sector, while the estimated expenditure on fire insurance only covers household expenditure. Therefore, the business sector is included in the estimated premiums.
In figure 1, the estimated fire insurance premiums are compared with the actual development of fire insurance premiums. The figure shows that the estimated premiums are exceeding the actual premiums in the period 1830 to 1900. During the period 1840 to 1900 the actual premiums are growing faster than estimated premiums, resulting in a phase of convergence. Actual and estimated premiums follow a similar path after 1900.
The estimated income elasticity of demand gives a fair approximation of the development of premium incomes during the first half of the 20th century. However, the counterfactual demand (based on 20th century estimates of income elasticity of demand) is much higher than actual premiums during the 19th century. This shows that the growth of fire insurance was not solely caused by income growth and urbanisation.
Figure 1. Premium incomes and estimated premium incomes (thousand SEK) in Swedish fire insurance1830-1950.
1 000 000
100 000
10 000
1 000
100 1830 1850 1870 1890 1910 1930 1950
Fire insurance Estimated fire insurance
Source: SOS: Statistisk årsbok 1913-1950. Bergander (1967), Skandia (1905), Svea (1917), Allmänna brandförsäkringsverket
(1940), Försäkringsbolaget allmänna brand (1940), Stockholms stads brandförsäkringskontor (1914), Stockholms stads
45 brandstodsbolag (1940), Städernas allmänna (1914). Swedish Official Statistics (1912-1950), Enskilda
Försäkringsanstalter.
The phase of convergence during the period 1840 to 1900 was, among other things, characterised by a rapid transformation of the insurance business; a transition from cooperative fire pools into a business managed by joint stock and mutual companies. The traditional system of insurance was a form of rural fire-support institutions (brandstod) that were funded on a cooperative system of “deposit and call”, modelled on community self-help fire protection arrangements harking back to a Royal proclamation that was passed in 1350
The unique obligation to be part of a rural fire-support fund was eventually removed in 1854, which was important for the establishment of successful nationwide insurance companies.
During the 18th century mutual fire-support systems were also extended to towns and cities, especially major ones such as Gothenburg and Stockholm. However, several fire-support funds (such as Borås Brandfösäkringskassa) became insolvent due to inadequate underwriting and poor management (Hägg, 1998).
The first attempt to establish national insurance carriers in Sweden took place in the first-half of the nineteenth century with a new nationwide mutual fire-support fund (Städernas
Allmänna Brandstodsbolag) established for Swedish towns and cities in 1827/8 and a rural counterpart founded in 1839. However, for various reasons these ventures were not a success financially and placed policyholders at increased risk of losses and contributed to low public trust and certainty. As argued in Lindmark et al (2005) such uncertainty placed the nationwide fire-support mutual pools at an economic disadvantage compared with the new joint-stock insurance company Skandia, founded in 1855, that emerged following the company law reforms of the mid-nineteenth century, notably the Stock Corporation Act of 1848 and in close conjunction with a modernisation of the financial system as such.
46 As composites (combining fire and life insurance), Skandia, Skåne and Svea relied heavily on mortgage loans. This type of loan had been introduced on foremost the countryside through the establishments of mortgage banks in the 1840s. Companies such as Skandia offered mortgage loans for houses and buildings, given that the building also was insured in the company. In turn, the life insurance division invested insurance funds in the mortgage loans. This was a major innovation to the Swedish financial market which at the same time contributed to productive investments.
Insurance premium growth rates also became much higher from the 1850s and clearly surpass that of the counterfactual insurance demand until the 1900s. From the perspective of insurance supply, this coincides with the establishment of the first national composites and also the second phase of establishments of companies during the 1870s and 1880s. These companies clearly operated according to different principles as compared to the early 19th century mutual companies.
From the perspective of insurance demand there were clearly other factors apart from income growth that affected the market between the 1850s and 1900s. Furthermore, due to the very close resemblance between actual insurance premium growth and estimated premium growth after 1890s, these unidentified factors must have played an important role in the development of the insurance market. Certainly insurance demand was to a high extent income driven from the 1900s to the 1950s which for instance suggests that legislative changes, foremost the 1903 and 1913 insurance acts had any impact on fire insurance market growth.
Figure 2 shows the corresponding series for estimated and actual life insurance premiums. Similar to the series in figure 1, the actual life insurance premiums are considerable lower than the estimated premiums and relatively speaking even lower than fire insurance during the 1830s. Although lower in the beginning, the premiums increase rapidly
47 especially after 1850. By 1910, actual and estimated premiums are equal and follow a similar path onwards.
Figure 2. Premium incomes and estimated premium incomes (thousand SEK) in Swedish life insurance1830-1950.
1 000 000
100 000
10 000
1 000
100
10
1 1830 1850 1870 1890 1910 1930 1950 Life insurance premiums Estimated life insurance premiums
Source: Krantz and Schön (2007), Änke and pupillkassan (archives), Bergander (1967), Swedish Official
Statistics (1912-1950), Enskilda Försäkringsanstalter.
The estimated series may, however, be estimated either on basis on model (2), which excludes the non-significant rural dummy, or on basis of model (4) despite that the rural dummy is not significant. There are numerous other indications, such as the di Matteo and
Emery (2002) study that would support this. A possibility is certainly that differences between rural and urban demand was not captured in this model. To test the importance of this, we included the rural dummy estimated in model (4) in the counterfactual estimate through including a variable for rural population in equation (4). This variable measures the share of rural population measured in percent. The modified estimate shows that urbanisation was not large enough to produce any viable differences as compared to the series obtained from model
(2). This is not surprising since rural population shares only fell from 90 to 80 % between
1850 and 1890.
48 The 19th century life insurance companies were preceded by mutual widows and orphans funds, most notably the AÄPK established in 1784. AÄPK and similar funds were however not nation wide companies, but restricted to major cities such as Stockholm and
Gothenburg. Besides insurance was only written for men holding certain clerical, administrative and military positions. Due to the restriction imposed on the business, most people were excluded from purchasing life insurance. The business was in that sense including and excluding policy holders on basis of the estates of the realm. There was also some underwriting by foremost British companies from the first decades of the 19th century.
As previously mentioned, Bergander (1967) emphasizes that the operations of the foreign companies were indeed limited on the Swedish market during the first half of the 19th century.
Indeed, it was Skandia and the other Swedish composites that took the lead on the life insurance market from the mid 1850s. They met in turn competition from domestic life insurance companies such as Thule, Victoria and Nordstjernan from the 1870s.
Summoning up the results so far, the investigation shows that the estimated income elasticity of demand along with urbanisation gives a fair approximation of the development of actual premium incomes during the first half of the 20th century. In turn, these counterfactual estimates exaggerate the actual premiums in the 19th century. This gives reason to believe the income growth and urbanisation are not the sole explanations for the development of insurance premiums, which is further strengthened by the fact that the pre-Skandia insurance companies based their business on excluding and including policy holders. In other words, other factors need to be taken into account to understand the phase of convergence, where actual premiums increased more rapidly than estimated premiums.
In previous research factors such as price, risk and actuarial principles has been suggested to play an important part in the growth of insurance. Indeed Pearson states that the
49 growth of the insurance industry was preceded by a general reduced risk in different areas.102
Insurance growth could also be attributed to prices, as indicated in a study of American health insurance.103 Based on these findings the following section will address the convergence between actual and counterfactual premiums by analysing developments of price and risk of insurance.
The development of price and risk in life and fire insurance
Figure 3 shows the prince of insurance (load) in six fire insurance companies during the period 1830 to 1913. In these companies the price is very similar at the beginning and at the end of the period. We also find that the price fluctuates between 1.00 and 1.20 while there is no evidence for any negative trend. Based on these findings, it is hard to argue that falling insurance prices may have boosted insurance demand during the period 1840 to 1900.
Figure 3. The development of load in Swedish fire insurance companies 1830-1913.
1,25
1,2
1,15
1,1
1,05
1 1830 1835 1840 1845 1850 1855 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905 1910
Source: Own estimates based on Försäkringsaktiebolaget Skandia 1855-1905. Norstedt, Stockholm 1905; Brand- och lifförsäkrings-aktiebolaget Svea: minnesskrift 1866-1916, Svea, Stockholm 1917;Brand- och lifförsäkringsbolaget Skåne: 1884-1934. Malmö, 1934; Åmark. Karl, Allmänna Brandförsäkringsverket 1782- 1932, Minnesskrift, Victor Pettersson förlag, Stockholm 1932; Grenholm, Åke, Försäkringsbolaget Allmänna Brand: ömsesidigt av 1842 : minnesskrift 1842-1942 Uppsala: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1943; Brandförsäkringsaktiebolaget Norrland 1889-1914. W. Zachrissons förlag, Göteborg 1915:.
102 Pearson, Robin. Towards an historical model of services innovation: the case of the insurance industry 1700- 1914, Economic History Review 50, 1997:2, 235-256. 103 Thomasson, Melissa. From Sickness to Health: The Twentieth-Century Development of U.S. Health Insurance. Explorations in Economic History 39, 2002: 3, 233-253
50 Figure 4 shows the price development in three life insurance companies during the period 1860 to 1913. In these three companies, the load increased from 1.10 in 1860 to 1.14 in
1913. There is no evidence for a negative trend in this series either, while there may be a positive one. Based on the finding it is also in the case of life insurance hard to argue that the development of prices fostered the increasing demand for life insurance during the period
1860 to 1905.
Figure 4. The development of load in life insurance companies 1860-1905.
1,18
1,16 1,14 1,12 1,1 1,08 1,06 1,04 1,02 1 1860 1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890 1895 1900 1905
Source: Own estimates based on: Försäkringsaktiebolaget Skandia 1855-1905. Norstedt, Stockholm 1905; Brand- och lifförsäkrings-aktiebolaget Svea: minnesskrift 1866-1916, Svea, Stockholm 1917; Livförsäkringsaktiebolaget Thule 1872- 1922: Minnesskrift Livförsäkrings AB Thule, Stockholm 1923.
Another important aspect of the insurance market is the development of risk, as it affects both the demand and supply of insurance. In figure 5, risk in fire insurance is indicated by the volatility in claims of fire events during the period 1834 to 1913. As seen in the figure, risk in terms of volatility was clearly reduced during the period. In detail the figure reports a reduction of risk from 1.8 in 1840 to 0.14 in 1913. Indeed, the management of risk in fire insurance seems to have been less distressing in the 1913 than in 1840.
51
Figure 5. Volatility in claims of fire events 1834-1910.
2 1,8 1,6 1,4 1,2 1 0,8 0,6 0,4 0,2 0 1834 1844 1854 1864 1874 1884 1894 1904
Source: Own estimates based on Bergander, Bengt, Försäkringsväsendet i Sverige 1814-1914. Wesmanns Skandinaviske Forsikringsfond, Lund 1967.
The reduction of risk in fire insurance may be explained through a number of factors.
The entry of national-wide insurance companies like Skandia could have facilitated the implementation of risk management based on actuarial principles. Secondly, there was also a reduction of the probability of fire incidents which in turn was related to actions taken in response to prevent city fires. A more strict building regulation was passed in 1884 and it is furthermore likely that improved heating and lightning techniques reduced the risk of fire.
Iron stoves and tile stoves replaced open stoves during the 19th century while kerosene lamps were replacing candles.
Despite the reduced risks there are however no indication that this translated into reduced prices.104 The lack of correspondence between risk and prices may, however, be explained by collusion, which was common among insurance companies in this period. One
104 The reduction of risk may, however, translate into a lower value-at-risk. Value-at-risk is measured as the ratio between premiums and sums insured. An examination of value-at-risk in fire insurance did not suggest any trend growth in the period 1830-1920. Thus, value-at-risk cannot explain increased demand.
52 example is the Svenska brandtarifföreningen (Swedish Fire insurance tariff association) formed 1869 with the main purpose to coordinate premiums and other conditions for fire insurance. Interestingly enough, it comprised not only Swedish but also several foreign companies.
The reduction of risk was not only pertinent to fire. Risk, measured as the volatility in mortality, was also reduced during the period 1830 to 1910. Although the volatility was reduced, the upswings in the 1850s and late 1860s and early 1870s clearly show that the process was not free from setbacks. After 1880 the volatility in mortality stabilised at a low level. The development of mortality indicates that the risk facing the companies was significantly reduced during the later part of the nineteenth century.
Figure 6. Volatility in mortality in Sweden 1830 to 1910.
0,45 0,4 0,35 0,3 0,25 0,2 0,15 0,1 0,05 0 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900
Source: Swedish Official Statistics (2007), Demographic statistics of Sweden.
The decline in volatility of mortality could be explained by a number of factors. The first explanation seems to be the general reduction in mortality during the 19th century. In addition, the outbreak of epidemics and famines also became less severe. As seen in the figure, the volatility in mortality significantly increased with the outbreak of cholera
53 epidemics in 1830 and 1850 and the famine in 1867. Since the 1880s the population has not suffered from major mortal epidemics, with exception for the Spanish flu in 1920-22. 105
Summing up so far, we have find that the load value has increased while risk has been reduced during the second half of the ninetieth century. The development of price and risk seems not have been prime factors for the growth of insurance demand. In turn, one could argue that rising price and reduced risk stimulated the entrance and growth of insurance companies.
The literature on financial development has in addition to price, risk and income, emphasised the role of useful knowledge, literacy and trust among other things. Indeed, as noted by Mokyr (2005) the effective deployment of useful knowledge in the service of production is of outmost importance to stimulate technological progress, innovation and economic growth. Resent research focusing on insurance has emphasised the role of service innovation to foster expansion of insurance business. However, as noted by Pearson the positive correlation between innovation and output growth is not merely direct but more likely indirect and gradual.106 Given that reasoning, the supply of life and fire insurance could be lagging behind changes in demand.
Also on the demand side, non-economical factors such as literacy and information flow could have played a role. Previous studies by Dewar (1998) have suggested that education has an expected positive effect on the demand for e.g. health insurance.107 However, economic historical studies have not confirmed the result. Di Matteo and Emery (2002) shows that literacy had an insignificant effect on life insurance demand in Ontario 1892.108 Thomasson
(2002) ends up in the same conclusion for US health insurance during the period 1932-1955.
105 Edvinsson, Sören and Nilsson, Hans, Urban mortality in Sweden during the 19th century, in Brändström, Anders and Tedebrand Lars-Göran, Population dynamics during industrialization, Report 13, Demographic Database, Umeå University, Umeå 2000. 106 Pearson, R. 1997 107 Dewar, Diane M., Do Those with More Formal Education Have Better Health Insurance Opportunities? Economics of Education Review, Vol. 17 1998 :3, 267–277. 108 Di Matteo and Emery, 2002.
54 Considering the development of literacy in Sweden, we note that roughly 50 percent of the male population was literate in 1800 and after the public school reform in 1842, close to ninety per cent of all young men was literate (Pettersson, 1996). At the time insurance market started to grow, almost every man was literate accordingly.
Also the extent of trust could have affected relation between policy holders and companies. Especially in life insurance, the nature of selling life insurance was dependent on the building consumer trust in the product and its providers.109 In fire insurance the moral hazard issue of trust could have affected the relation between policy holders and companies.
In addition, we note from Sweden that the close relation between banks demanding security for estate loans put a pressure on costumers to insure their holdings. The transition from an
“informal” or unintermediated, credit market into a formal bank system during the second half of the 19th century could in that sense have fostered the growth of fire insurance business.110
For instance to have a loan on a house, one also needed to purchase fire insurance.
The growing banking industry could also have had an impact on the life insurance industry. To have a loan, life insurance was an important security for the uncertainly of life.
Although the banking sector could have played a role, the growing demand for life insurance also could have been fostered by the increasing numbers of workers in the manufacturing and service industry. The life insurance may have been spread from an high income classes such as merchants, civil servants and engineers into low income classes such as blue-collar workers, clerks and assistants to mention a few. If this diffusion between classes was at hand, one should expect that the number of policy holders increased rapidly, while the average premium at the same time declined. In figure 7, the average premium value in life insurance
(total premium income of all companies divided by the number of policy holders) by stock
109 Keneley Monica, The evolution of the Australian life insurance industry, Accounting, Business & Financial History, Vol. 11, 2001: 2, 145–170. 110 Lindgren Håkan, The Modernization of Swedish Credit Markets, 1840–1905: Evidence from Probate Records, The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 62, 2002:. 3, 810-832.
55 and mutual companies are shown. As seen in the figure, the average premium declined substantially during the late 19th century and the early 20th century, while the number of policy holders increased rapidly at the same time. Taken into account the rapid growth of premium incomes at the time, one can conclude that number of policy holders increased rapidly. These policy holders probably belonged to lower income classes than previously.
Figure 7. Average premium value in life insurance (premium income divided by the number of policy holders) and number policyholders 1889-1911.
250 1400
1200 200 1000 N policy holders Average premium 150 800
600 100
400 50 200
0 0 1889 1894 1899 1904 1909
Average premium N policy holders
Source: 1889-1911, Försäkringsväsendet i riket, Civildepartementet försäkringsinspektionen.
The average premiums were reduced during the whole period but drops drastically after
1899. This observation is consistent with the introduction of the industrial life insurance,
(working-class life insurance) provided by companies such as Trygg (1899). Low premiums were possible through i.e. weekly premium payments, the adoption of an extensive insurance
56 agent organisation and the abolishment of compulsory medical examination.111 In line with the arguments of Mokyr, these adjustments resulted in reduced access costs for almost everyone in society who wished to acquire a life insurance. The decline of average premium was the result of a diffusion process, where the numbers of policy holders increased whereas the average premium value declined. This suggests that life insurance became accessible for the growing numbers of workers, and that new companies played an important role in extending insurance to these market segments. And as stressed by Sandberg, a broad, general use of financial services facilitated the continuously expansion of the industry, illustrated by the increased number of policy holders.
Drawing from Joel Mokyr’s concept of useful knowledge, we argue that the life insurance must be widely distributed in society to be socially productive.112 Before the diffusion of life insurance to lower classes, the life insurance might have implied a great economic advantage for some parts of society, but its importance for the financial and social development was limited until the major public adopted it. Therefore, the expansion of the life insurance industry from the end of the 19th century can partly be explained through a democratisation of life insurance, where the life insurance underwent a transformation from a solution for a few bourgeois men, to a much wider range of social classes.
Concluding remarks
In meeting the need from household and companies such as financial intermediation and by making risk accountable, the development of insurance has been an important part of the financial revolution. Seen from the demand side, the growth and development of insurance has not solely been determined by the growth of incomes and urbanisation. The estimation of income elasticity of demand, based on household budget surveys (selected years 1913 to
111 Bergander 1967 pp 341-45. 112 Mokyr, Joel, The Intelletual Origins of Modern Economic Growth, Journal of Economic History, Vol. 65, 2005:2, 295.
57 1978), gives a fair approximation of the development of life and fire insurance premiums during the period 1900 to 1950. However, given the 20th century estimates of income elasticity of demand, the counterfactual premiums are much than the actual ones during the
19th century. This difference gradually diminishes during the period 1840 to 1900. This phase of convergence, where actual premiums are growing faster than estimated premiums, call for other explanations than income and urbanisation.
Although previous research has suggested that price and risk have played important roles in the development of insurance, we cannot find strong evidence for this. The development of price in fire insurance, (measured as loading) during the period 1840 to 1900, indicate only minor and temporary changes. In life insurance we find that prices increased by
4 per cent between 1860 and 1900. The small and temporary changes give little reason to believe that prices played an important role in the growth of insurance. The development of risk on the fire insurance market (measured as volatility in fire events), shows that the risk of fire was generally reduced after the 1840s. Also in life insurance was the risk (measured as volatility in mortality) reduced during the second half of the 19th century. The reduction of risk suggests that the entry and growth of companies was facilitated, while the demand of insurance was reduced. Although this reduction of risk may have facilitated the operation of the insurance business, it can hardly explain the rapid growth of insurance premiums during second half of the nineteenth century, since it did not translate into falling prices.
The growth of a banking system that took place in the second half of the nineteenth put, in addition, pressure on household as well as companies to insure their securities. As the informal or unintermediated credit market transformed into a modern bank system, the need for insured securities, not only fire but also life, changed the need or demand of insurance for households. In life insurance, the numbers of policy holders increased at the expanse of average premium size, showing that insurance was diffused into a wider range of
58 social classes. The growth of the Swedish insurance market was a socio-economic process, where income, price and risk could play a role as insurance could attract not only the few but the masses. Thus, the organisation of life insurance reflects the dismantling of the estates of the realms. The first stock holding companies opened up life insurance for the high income classes of the bourgeoisie. Followers attracted customers in the lower income segments of the bourgeoisie, while insurance for the labour class was developed during the late 19th century.
This suggests that companies in the expanding life insurance business could not have business plans based on the ideas of the estates of the realms. Modernisation, democratisation and good business therefore went hand in hand.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Mike B. Adams for his comments and assistance. We also thank the discussants at the
Swedish Economic Historical Meeting in Stockholm in 2007, and especially so Anders Ögren and Mikael
Lönnborg for useful comments. However, the normal disclaimer applies.
59
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Article 2: Financial business as a social project
67 Finansiell verksamhet som ett socialt projekt Livförsäkringsrörelsen och de gifta kvinnorna under det sena 1800-talet∗ Av Liselotte Eriksson
Livförsäkringsrörelsen uppkom i en tid av stor ekonomisk och social föränd- ring, som utmanade det förindustriella samhällets traditionella föreställ- ningar och reciprocitet. Det var en tid när det traditionella ansvarstagandet mellan generationerna inom samhället förändrades. Löneinkomsternas och mannens roll som familjeförsörjare ökade i betydelse på bekostnad av den fasta egendomen, som tidigare garanterat försörjningen av familjens medlem- mar. Denna förändring ökade behovet av försörjning i händelse av familjeför- sörjarens bortgång, vilket öppnade för livförsäkringen som en ersättning för det sociala ansvarstagande mellan generationerna som utmärkt jordbruks- samhället.1 I den internationella litteraturen framhåller bland andra ekonomhistori- kern Richard Sylla att fi nanssystemets och livförsäkringsrörelsens utbredning föregick den ekonomiska moderniseringen i fl era länder.2 Den ekonomiska moderniseringen var dock inte ett isolerat fenomen, utan intimt samman- kopplad med modernisering på samhällets alla områden.3 Enligt historikern Keith Thomas var även försäkringssystemets uppkomst en av fl era viktiga förutsättningar för framväxten av det moderna, riskreducerande samhället.4
∗ En första version av denna artikel presenterades vid det sjunde Svenska ekonomisk-historiska mö- tet, Stockholm 12–14 oktober 2007. 1. Livio Di Matteo & J.C. Herbert Emery,”Wealth and the demand for life insurance: evidence from Ontario, 1892”, Explorations in economic history 39, 2002, s. 446–469. 2. Richard Sylla, ”Financial systems and economic modernization”, Journal of economic history 62:2, 2002, s. 281. 3. Allan Pred & Michael J. Watts, Reworking modernity: capitalism and symbolic discontent, NewNew Brunswick & New Jersey 1992, s. 9–11. 4. Keith Thomas, Religion and the decline of magic, NewNew YYorkork 1971, s. 651–656.
Liselotte Eriksson, f. 1978, är doktorand vid Ekonomisk-historiska institutionen, Umeå universitet, och ingår i forskningsprojektet ”Den enskildes risk, det gemensamma åtagan- det”, fi nansierat av Jan Wallanders och Tom Hedelius samt Tore Browaldhs Stiftelse. Eriksson har tidigare publicerat ”Livförsäkringsmännen och kampen för gifta kvinnors äganderätt”, Nordisk försäkringstidskrift (2006). Adress: Ekonomisk historia, Umeå universitet, 901 87 Umeå E-post: [email protected]
historisk tidskrift 128:2 • 2008 68 154 Liselott Eriksson Trots att internationell forskning har betonat livförsäkringens socioekono- miska betydelse har den svenska livförsäkringsforskningen främst fokuserat på försäkringsindustrins ekonomiska och institutionella utveckling.5 Samspe- let mellan livförsäkringsrörelsen och de sociala omvälvningar som skedde under slutet av 1800-talet har således inte undersökts. I Sverige startades Skandia 1855 som det första rikstäckande försäkrings- bolaget baserat på vetenskapliga försäkringstekniska principer. Skandia åtfölj- des av Svea och Skåne, vilka, precis som Skandia, var så kallade kompositbolag, vilket innebär att de hanterade en kombinerad liv- och brandförsäkring. Med livförsäkringsaktiebolaget Thule i spetsen uppkom under 1880–1890-talen en mängd livbolag, ofta baserade på ömsesidiga principer.6 Kritiken i Norden mot det privata patriarkatet började parallellt med samhällets modernisering och vann även politiskt genomslag.7 Livförsäkringsbolag slog därmed upp sina portar samtidigt som kvinnor allt kraftigare började hävda sina rättigheter, arbetare började organisera sig och traditionella normer allt mer kom att ifrågasättas. Dessa fenomen var alltså inte bara synkrona utan fl era män i styrelseposition i livförsäkringsbolagen (livförsäkringsmän) var aktiva i kampen för olika gruppers samhälleliga rättigheter, bland annat i Föreningen för gift qvinnas eganderätt (GKÄ). Syftet med denna uppsats är att studera hur livförsäkringsmän rörde sig mellan sociala, politiska och ekonomiska arenor i slutet av 1800-talet. Det sker genom att studera hur gifta kvinnors äganderättsliga villkor påverkade livförsäkringsrörelsen och hur livförsäkringsmän agerade i riksdagen gällande gift kvinnas äganderätt. Därmed bidrar artikeln till att öka förståelsen för hur ekonomiska och sociala rörelser integrerats och givit förutsättningar för social och ekonomisk förändring. Livförsäkringsmännens engagemang i GKÄ har inte berörts i tidigare forskning, och utifrån grundantaganden i neoklassisk teori skulle bakgrunden till deras engagemang ha varit att maximera sina ekonomiska intressen. Då de
5. Om den svenska försäkringsindustrins institutionella och ekonomiska utveckling, se t.ex. Magnus Lindmark, Lars Fredrik Andersson & Mike Adams, ”The evolution and development of the Swedish insu- rance market”, Accounting business and fi nancial history 16:3, 2006, s. 341–370; Mikael Lönnborg, Inter- nationalisering av svenska försäkringsbolag: drivkrafter, organisering och utveckling 1855–1913, Uppsala 1999; Mats Larsson, Den reglerade marknaden: svenskt försäkringsväsende 1850–1980, SNS occasional papers 77, Stockholm 1991; Karl Englund, Försäkring och fusioner: Skandia, Skåne, Svea, Thule, Öresund, 1855–1980, Stockholm 1982; Bengt Bergander, Försäkringsväsendet i Sverige 1814–1914, Lund 1969. 6. Thule var ett aktiebolag men införde ömsesidiga principer; Englund 1982, s. 46. 7. Kari Melby, Anu Pylkkänen, Bente Rosenbeck & Christina Carlsson Wetterberg, Inte ett ord om kärlek: äktenskap och politik i Norden ca 1850–1930, Lund 2006, s. 167. historisk tidskrift 128:2 • 2008 69 Finansiell verksamhet som ett socialt projekt 155 var aktieägare i bolagen skulle en ökad kundstock, minskade risker eller ett stärkande av tilliten till livförsäkringsrörelsen ha gynnat deras egna privateko- nomiska intressen. Men argumentet i denna studie är att livförsäkringsmän- nens deltagande i GKÄ även kan ha varit ett uttryck för socialt engagemang, en strävan efter förbättringar för marginaliserade grupper i samhället.8 Som teoretisk utgångspunkt för uppsatsen fungerar antagandet att indu- striell upplysning var en viktig del av den industriella revolutionen. Denna uppfattning har framhållits av ekonomhistorikern Joel Mokyr, som menar att den industriella upplysningen innebar att ekonomisk tillväxt även kom att innefatta ett engagemang till förbättring på sociala och moraliska områden, vilket inkluderade demokrati- och jämlikhetssträvanden.9 Detta antyder i sin tur att vinstmaximering inte nödvändigtvis är en realistisk utgångspunkt för att förstå företagares ställningstaganden. Trots att industrialiseringens kapi- talägare var intresserade av att öka sin vinst innebär det inte ovillkorligen att vinstmaximering är en tillräcklig förklaring och utgångspunkt för att förstå företagares ställningstaganden i olika frågor. Historikern Ben Griffi n har studerat de engelska politikernas argumenta- tion gällande gift kvinnas äganderätt. Hans studie visar att politikerna förde en till synes inkonsekvent linje i kvinnofrågan.10 För att förstå de samtida svenska aktörernas handlande är det nödvändigt att beakta att det i slutet av 1800-talet var mer regel än undantag med parallella karriärer vid sidan av riksdagsarbetet. Därför måste man även studera riksdagsmännens handlande utifrån deras andra roller i samhället, exempelvis intressen i företag, delaktig- het i sociala rörelser och personliga relationer. Männens handlande kan alltså även förklaras utifrån existensen av fl era lojaliteter. GKÄ fungerade som ett slags lobbyorganisation som arbetade direkt mot riksdagen. Mäns deltagande var därför viktigt för verksamheten, men kopp- lingen mellan föreningen och riksdagsdebattörerna har inte fokuserats i tidi- gare forskning.11 Historisk och ekonomhistorisk forskning har däremot stude-
8. Livförsäkringsmännens engagemang innebär här deltagande främst i GKÄ men även ett allmänt engagemang i andra frågor och sociala rörelser. 9. Joel Mokyr, ”The intellectual origins of modern economic growth”, Journal of economic history 65: 2, 2005, s. 290f. 10. Ben Griffi n,”Gender, class and liberalism in parliament1868 –1882: the case of married women’s property acts”, The historical journal 46:1, 2003, s. 60f. 11. Se t.ex. Melby, Pylkkänen, Rosenbeck & Wetterberg 2006; Ulla Manns, Upp systrar, väpnen er! Kön och politik i svensk 1800-talsfeminism, StockholmStockholm 2005; Ulla Manns, ”En man för sin sak: Lars Hierta, Oscar Stackelberg och Fredrik Borg”, i Yvonne Svanström & Kjell Östberg (red.), Än män då? Kön och feminism i Sverige under 150 år, StockholmStockholm 2004.
historisk tidskrift 128:2 • 2008 70 156 Liselott Eriksson rat hur kvinnor agerat utifrån lagar och normer som bland annat begränsade deras ekonomiska rättigheter.12 Genom att även studera hur livförsäkringsrö- relsen påverkades av och hanterade kvinnors begränsade rättigheter, tydlig- görs betydelsen ytterligare av att inkludera kvinnor och kvinnors villkor även i ett fi nanshistoriskt perspektiv. En mängd ekonomiska och historiska studier har även behandlat kvinnor som ekonomiska aktörer och kritik har riktats mot uppdelningen i offentlig och privat sfär, då uppdelningen osynliggör kvinnors ekonomiska och sociala agerande.13 Uppdelningen i privat och offentligt innebär även en begränsning av vad ekonomisk verksamhet förväntas innebära. Historikern Karin Wider- berg menar exempelvis att lagförändringar som bidrog till kvinnors utökade rättigheter aktualiserades genom en önskan att sänka transaktionskostnader, eftersom den rådande lagstiftningen hindrade den borgerliga ekonomins ut- veckling.14 Ekonomhistorikern Anita Göransson sammanfattar debatten om ogifta kvinnors myndighet i Sverige som att antingen ha handlat om en önskan att reducera transaktionskostnader genom bibehållandet av kvinnors äkten- skapliga ställning eller att skydda egendom från borgenärer genom att utöka gifta kvinnors egendomsrättigheter.15 Det var ekonomins behov som i vissa fall kom att överensstämma med kvinnorörelsens mål. Den växelverkan som ägde rum mellan näringsliv och kvinnorörelse kom alltså att gynna dem båda. Förändrade sociala förhållanden och den ekonomiska utvecklingen bidrog naturligtvis på olika sätt till ett ifrågasättande av gamla förhållanden som underlättade kvinnors emancipation. Men att karakterisera ekonomisk verk- samhet som endast vinstmaximerande och hänförd till offentlig sfär är en alltför ensidig framställning av ekonomisk aktivitet. Ett allmänt antagande om ekonomin som drivkraft i olika demokratiseringsprocesser bidrar även till ett osynliggörande av enskilda ekonomiska aktörer, företag och branscher som utan synbart ekonomiskt intresse uppmuntrade kvinnors delaktighet i ekono-
12. T.ex. Ann Ighe, I faderns ställe: genus, ekonomisk förändring och den svenska förmyndarinstitu- tionen ca 1700–1860, Göteborg 2007; Karin Widerberg, Kvinnor, klasser och lagar 1750–1980, Stock- holm 1980; Janette Rutterford & Josephine Maltby, ”The widow, the clergyman and the reckless: women investors in England 1830–1914”, Feminist economics 12:1–2, 2006, s. 111–138. 13. Se t.ex. Leonore Davidoff & Catherine hall, Family fortunes: men and women of the English middle class 1780–1850, London 1994; Kvinnovetenskaplig tidskrift 2001:2; Joan W. Scott & Debra Keates (red.) Going public: feminism and the shifting boundaries of the private sphere, Urbana 2004. 14. Anita Göransson,”Gender and property rights: capital kin, and owner infl uence in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Sweden”, Journal of business history 35:2, 1993, s. 14, 20–22; Widerberg 1980, s. 45–52. 15. Göransson 1993, s. 21. historisk tidskrift 128:2 • 2008 71 Finansiell verksamhet som ett socialt projekt 157 min. Detta trots att det fanns branscher som gynnades av kvinnans underord- nade ställning. Demokratisering, medborgarskapets spridning till fl er grupper i samhället eller kvinnors juridiskt utökade rättigheter är processer som är svåra att förklara endast utifrån konstaterandet att den industriella ekonomin gynnades av förändringarna. På en strukturell nivå har forskningen förklarat kvinnors utökade rättigheter främst som en konsekvens av borgerliga ekono- miska intressen. I det följande vill jag i stället undersöka hur tolkningen på- verkas om man studerar lagförändringar på aktörsnivå utifrån den kontext aktörerna befann sig i.
Livförsäkringens förutsättningar före 1874 Trots att den framväxande fi nansmarknaden till stor del gynnades av att traditionella, patriarkala förhållanden förändrades, byggde efterfrågan på livförsäkringar länge på det borgerliga idealet med mannen som familjeför- sörjare.16 Den propaganda för livförsäkringar som spreds grundade sig på det borgerliga hemmafruidealet, där arbetande kvinnor som gifte sig fi ck lämna sin anställning och där änkans möjlighet till arbete hindrades, då hennes klasstillhörighet inte medgav vilket yrke som helst.17 Livförsäkringsrörelsens främsta kundgrupp under hela 1800-talet var borgerliga män och fortfarande år 1898 utgjorde köpmän över 20 procent av alla försäkrade både i Skandia och i Thule. Kvinnors betydelse för livförsäkringsrörelsen som livförsäkrings- tagare var obetydligt och uppgick i Thule endast till 7,2 procent och i Skandia till 3,8 procent år 1898.18 Kvinnor hade lägre dödlighet än män, förutom i den mest reproduktiva åldersgruppen där dödligheten i stället var mycket hög. Detta i kombination med att de borgerliga kvinnorna sällan hade större för- värvsinkomster gjorde att försäkringsbolagen troligen inte såg kvinnor som en särskilt lönsam grupp att försäkra. Åren 1900–1920 ökade andelen livförsäk- rade kvinnor något, men ökningen skedde främst bland ogifta kvinnor.19 De gifta kvinnornas roll som mottagare av livförsäkringsbrevet var desto vikti-
16. En studie över efterfrågan på livförsäkringar i Ontario 1892 visar att efterfrågan på livförsäk- ringen var högst bland dem utan sparat kapital eller förmögenhet men med lönearbete. Studier visar också att familjer med en familjeförsörjare hade högre livförsäkringstagande; Di Matteo & Emery 2002, s. 464. 17. I den tidiga argumentationen gällande livförsäkringen var idealpersonen för försäkringsbolag den framgångsrike mannen med familj och många år av förvärvsarbete framför sig, men utan kapital; Jan Kuuse & Kent Olsson, Ett sekel med Skandia, StockholmStockholm 2000, s. 100. 18. Sven Palme, Lifförsäkringsaktiebolaget Thule, 2: 1873–1898, Stockholm 1898, s. 14. 19. Först under mellankrigstiden började livförsäkringsbolag på allvar att vända sig till gifta kvinnor då kvinnors yrkesarbetande ökade; Kuuse & Olsson 2000, s. 99.
historisk tidskrift 128:2 • 2008 72 158 Liselott Eriksson gare. Denna relation var grundläggande för livförsäkringsrörelsen, då livför- säkringens idé framställdes med sikte på främst borgerliga kvinnors behov av försörjning i änkeståndet. Trots detta började Thule redan under 1870-talet att se kvinnor som en potentiellt viktig kundgrupp. Thule, som startades 1873, använde redan från början kvinnliga agenter, utarbetade prospekt riktade särskilt mot kvinnor och anställde Sveriges första kvinnliga läkare, Karolina Widerström, som försäkringsläkare för att locka kvinnliga kunder.20 Kvinnliga agenter rekryterades bland annat från kvinno- rörelsen där Hanna Palme, hustru till Thules direktör Sven Palme, och andra kvinnor med kopplingar till försäkringsrörelsen var verksamma.21 Thule utma- nade således föreställningen om kvinnor som endast livförsäkringsförmånsta- gare, en ordning som livförsäkringsrörelsen i grunden gynnades av.
Gifta kvinnor och livförsäkringen När det första livbolaget startade hade ett inledande steg mot att frigöra kvinnan från mannens förvaltningsrätt tagits tio år tidigare med införandet av lika arvsrätt år 1845.22 Under 1800-talet reglerades äktenskapet efter 1734 års giftermålsbalk och bestod av en samäganderättsliknande egendomsge- menskap mellan makar. Detta innebar ett samfällt bo där ägandet var gemen- samt oavsett vem som fört in egendomen i boet efter äktenskapets ingående. Makarna fi ck del i varandras egendom, som övergick i samfälld egendom när de gifte sig (giftorätt). Detta gällde dock inte enskild egendom förvärvad före äktenskapets ingående eller sådan egendom som förvärvats genom arv.23 Formellt hade således den gifta kvinnan äganderätt, men mannen var hus- truns målsman och hade förvaltningsrätt över boets tillgångar. Mannens förvaltningsrätt var emellertid begränsad gällande hustruns enskilda fasta egendom, som inte fi ck säljas eller förpantas utan hennes samtycke.24 Livförsäkringen var dock inte juridiskt defi nierad och dess funktion kunde inte enkelt hänföras till befi ntlig lag eller juridisk praxis. Livförsäkringen var ett kontrakt mellan försäkringstagaren och försäkringsbolaget och skulle ut- betalas till de förmånstagare som nämndes i livförsäkringsbrevet. Alltså
20. Palme 1898, s. 35. 21. Birgit Persson, ”Tolfterna: ett systerskap över klassgränserna”, Arbetarhistoria: meddelande från arbetarrörelsens arkiv och bibliotek 56–57, 1990, s. 13–24. 22. Åsa Karlsson-Sjögren, Kvinnors rätt i stormaktstidens Gävle, Uppsala 1998, s. 71. 23. Fats egendom på landet hänfördes till detta och efter 1898 även fast egendom i stad; Tottie 1990, s. 99. 24. ”Förslag till giftermålsbalk IV”, Lagberedningens förslag till revision av giftermålsbalken och vissa delar av ärvdabalken (LB), SStockholmtockholm 1918, s. 166, 236. historisk tidskrift 128:2 • 2008 73 Finansiell verksamhet som ett socialt projekt 159 måste skillnad göras mellan den som ägde livförsäkringen (de inbetalade premierna) och den som ägde livförsäkringssumman (utfallen livförsäkring). Då förmögenhetsrätten vid denna tid var relativt outvecklad verkar livförsäk- ringen ofta ha betraktats som värdepapper och som gåva från försäkringsta- garen till förmånstagaren.25 Men giftermålsbalken stadgade att makar inte kunde ingå giltiga förmögenhetsrättsliga eller äktenskapsrättsliga avtal med varandra. De kunde heller inte, under bestående äktenskap, ge varandra gåvor som kunde vara till borgenärens förfång.26 Under senare delen av 1800-talet hanterades troligen livförsäkringen ägande- rättsligt på två olika sätt. I det första fallet betraktades livförsäkringen och det utfallna beloppet som mannens egendom och blev efter hans död hans kvarlå- tenskap. I det andra fallet ansåg man att den utfallna livförsäkringen skulle tillfalla hustrun som förmånstagare och bli hennes samfällda egendom. Att livförsäkringen tolkades på lite olika sätt spelade marginell roll i de fall makarnas bo inte var skuldsatt, eftersom försäkringssumman i vilket fall som helst tillföll änka och efterlevande. Men om det samfällda boet var skuldsatt innebar båda tolkningarna att borgenärer kunde göra anspråk på livförsäk- ringen och livförsäkringssumman. Skulder delades upp i enskild och samfälld gäld. Enskild gäld avsåg skulder som hänförde sig till enskild egendom och för sådan gäld svarade endast den enskilda egendomen. För hustruns skulder svarade i allmänhet bara den egendom som stod under hennes förvaltning. För övriga skulder – mannens samfällda skulder, med andra ord – var utgångspunkten att all egendom i boet svarade för skulderna.27 Men hustruns enskilda egendom svarade i regel inte för mannens skulder och hustrun kunde undandra sin enskilda egendom makens konkurs. Men i de fall då mannens samfällda och enskilda egendom inte täckte skulderna, kunde hustruns enskilda egendom belastas av mannens skulder.28 Det som därför möjligen kunde undandra borgenärerna livförsäkringen till hustruns förmån var om livförsäkringen blev hennes enskilda egendom. I den första tolkningen av livförsäkringen måste äganderätten till livförsäkringen på något sätt överföras och göras till hustruns enskilda egendom. För att göra
25. Lars Tottie, Äktenskapsbalken och promulgationslag m.m., Stockholm 1990, s. 207. 26. Örjan Teleman, Bodelning, SStockholmtockholm 1993, s. 21. 27. Monica Burman, ”Den farliga familjen och borgenärerna”, i Monica Burman & Åsa Gunnarsson (red.), Familjeföreställningar: om familjens betydelse inom juridik, ekonomi och forskning, UppsalaUppsala 2001, s. 63. 28. LB 1918, s. 169f.
historisk tidskrift 128:2 • 2008 74 160 Liselott Eriksson detta var mannen tvungen att anordna två gåvohandlingar. Detta innebar att mannen fi ck överlåta livförsäkringen till en tredje person, som i sin tur överlät livförsäkringen till hustrun med villkor att den skulle tillhöra henne enskilt. Att göra livförsäkringen till hustruns enskilda egendom utifrån den andra tolkningen var endast möjligt genom tecknande av äktenskapsförord före äk- tenskapet.29 Under äktenskapet kunde boskillnad sökas, vilket innebar en upplösning av giftorättsgemenskapen. Här gällde att mannen skulle kunna skänka hustrun livförsäkringen att bli hennes enskilda egendom.30 Men rätts- praxis varierade gällande en sådan transaktions giltighet.31 Det viktigaste ur livförsäkringssynpunkt var således att livförsäkringssumman kunde bli hus- truns enskilda egendom, då denna i regel inte svarade för mannens skulder. De reformer som under 1800-talet riktades mot kvinnor rörde främst de ogiftas förhållanden. År 1858 kunde ogifta kvinnor bli myndiga vid 25 års ålder efter ansökan i domstol, och 1863 blev de automatiskt myndiga. Detta tillsammans med att yrken öppnades för ogifta kvinnor under 1850–1860- talen var förändringar som tillkom för att många borgerliga ogifta kvinnor stod utan försörjning. De ogifta kvinnornas civilrättsliga status höjdes allt mer, i kontrast till de gifta kvinnornas, vilket var en av anledningarna till tillkomsten av den första föreningen för kvinnors rättigheter i Sverige, Fören- ingen för gift qvinnas eganderätt (GKÄ) 1873.32 Den svenska Försäkringsföreningen, som grundades 1875 för att arbeta för en försäkringslagstiftning, kommenterade inte de gifta kvinnornas ägande- rättsförhållanden förrän 1883, efter genomförandet av den engelska lagen ”Married Women’s Property Act”. Den engelska lagen, som utgick ifrån särä- gande och enskild förvaltning, avhandlade i en särskild paragraf hur livför- säkringar skulle hanteras, och lagstadgade den gifta kvinnans rätt till försäk- ringssumman. Flera svenska livförsäkringsmän ansåg dock att en liknande svensk lag inte behövdes, då endast 0,32 procent av rikets befolkning var livförsäkrade. De problem som kunde uppstå mellan gifta kvinnor och borge- närer ansågs således inte akuta för livförsäkringsrörelsen, samtidigt som
29. ”Om möjligheten för gift man att genom lifförsäkring betrygga sin familjs uppehälle”, Försäkrings- föreningens tidskrift (FFT) 1893, s. 147 30. Lag om framtida förvärv från 1862; LB 1918, s. 141. 31. LB 1918, s. 275f. 32. Inbjudarna till bildandet av GKÄ var Anna Hierta, Ebba Lind af Hageby (f. Hierta), Anna Wal- lenberg, Hulda Sohlman, Fredrika Limnell, Carl Limnell och Ellen Ankarsvärd. Lars Johan Hierta, på- skyndare av reformen för gift kvinnas ägande, avled 1872, innan man hunnit konstituera föreningen; Tidskrift för hemmet 3, 1885, s. 161f. historisk tidskrift 128:2 • 2008 75 Finansiell verksamhet som ett socialt projekt 161 försäkringsföreningen påpekade att det rådande förhållandet kunde bli ett framtida problem.33 Livförsäkringsmännen kom att hantera frågan om gift kvinnas äganderätt på tre sätt. För det första arbetade man för en total upplösning av 1734 års giftermåls- balk och förordade antingen särägande och enskild förvaltning eller egen- domsgemenskap och samförvaltning i äktenskapet. Detta gavs uttryck för i riksdagen och i GKÄ. Ett tillägg behövdes dock för att livförsäkringen inte skulle betraktas som mannens kvarlåtenskap. För det andra arbetade några livförsäkringsmän för ett tillägg i giftermålsbalken där en livförsäkring tagen på mannens liv till hustruns förmån skulle undandras egendomsgemenskapen för att i stället bli den gifta kvinnans enskilda egendom. För det tredje kunde försäkringsmännen i en särskild lag om försäkringsavtal verka för att livför- säkringen inte skulle ses som den försäkrades kvarlåtenskap och inte användas för att betala dennes skulder. Försäkringsföreningens syfte var att verka just för en sådan försäkringslagstiftning. Den första strategin, att arbeta för gifta kvinnors förvaltningsrätt, låg helt i linje med kvinnorörelsens syfte och utgångspunkter. Däremot var detta inte tillräckligt för att livförsäkringsbolagen skulle kunna garantera den gifta kvinnans rätt till livförsäkringen. För att lagen skulle gynna livförsäkringsrö- relsen behövdes ett tillägg i giftermålsbalken gällande hur livförsäkringar skulle hanteras. De två senare strategierna syftade direkt till att maximera livförsäkringsrörelsens ekonomiska intressen, och hade liten eller ingen koppling till kvinnorörelsen. Trots detta arbetade livförsäkringsmännen ge- nom GKÄ i hög grad för gift kvinnas äganderätt utifrån den första strategin. Två män från livförsäkringsrörelsen innehade ordförandeskapet i GKÄ under föreningens tjugoåriga verksamhet och dess första ordförande var generaldi- rektör Gustaf Fridolf Almquist, som även var styrelseledamot i Skandia. GKÄ:s andra ordförande var professor Hugo Gyldén, en av Thules grundare och sedermera bolagets aktuarie. I Thules styrelse av år 1883 var fem av sju styrelseledamöter även ledamöter i GKÄ.34 I Victorias styrelse var fyra av åtta styrelseledamöter medlemmar i föreningen.35
33. ”Försäkringsföreningens förhandlingar år 1883”, FFT 1884, s. 15f. 34. Medlemmarna var H. Gyldén, F. Beijer, C. G., Boivie, P. G. Fagerström, S. Palme; Förteckning över ledamöter i Stockholmsföreningen 1873–1893, medlemsförteckning 1887, Föreningen för gift qvinnas eganderätt, vol. 3, Fredrika-Bremer-Förbundets (FBF:s) arkiv, Riksarkivet (RA); ”De svenska försäkrings- aktiebolagens styrelser och agenter i Sverige år 1883”, FFT 1883, s. 19–45. 35. Medlemmarna var G. Mittag-Leffl er, J. H. Palme, J. Leffl er, C. O. Ekman; Föreningen för gift qvinnas eganderätt, vol. 3, FBF:s arkiv, RA; FFT 1883, s. 43.
historisk tidskrift 128:2 • 2008 76 162 Liselott Eriksson GKÄ ville undanröja mannens förvaltningsrätt inom äktenskapet, vilket var ytterst kontroversiellt i 1870-talets Sverige, där många fortfarande höll hårt på mannens husbondevälde reglerat i 1734 års lag. Ganska snart uppkom en motsättning inom föreningen, där en grupp ville behålla egendomsgemen- skapen med samförvaltning mellan makar och den andra krävde särägande och en total uppdelning av förvaltning och ägande bland gifta par.36 Efter stiftandet av GKÄ presenterades en rad motioner i riksdagen gäl- lande frågan om gifta kvinnors äganderätt. När frågan behandlades fanns det inte mindre än tio GKÄ-medlemmar i riksdagen: Gustaf Fridolf Almqvist, André Oscar Wallenberg, Oscar Julius Mörner, Wilhelm Walldén, Emil Key, Bernt Oscar Stackelberg, Karl Johan Svensén, Leonard Magnus Nordenfeldt, Knut Gillis Bildt och Olof Wijk d.y. Av dessa var Walldén, Almquist, Wal- lenberg och Wijk livförsäkringsmän.
Debatt i riksdagen om gift kvinnas förvaltningsrätt Den mest omfattande debatten ägde rum efter Walldéns motion 1873. Efter det lade Nordenfeldt och Philipsson 1874 var sin motion i ämnet. Philipssons motion styrktes på vissa punkter av lagutskottet och ledde till lagen 1874. Gällande motionerna 1874 var debatten ringa eller frånvarande, varför fokus i den följande analysen är på debatten 1873. Reformsträvan fortsatte dock, vilket illustreras av motioner från 1884. De fl esta GKÄ-medlemmarna i riksdagen argumenterade för att kvinnors utökade rättigheter skulle motiveras med att främst gifta kvinnor inom arbe- tarklassen var i behov av skydd. Walldéns motion 1873 utgick från att män ur arbetarklassen var de som oftast utnyttjade sin makt. Den gifta kvinnan borde dock inte använda sin äganderätt i de äktenskap där mannen skötte sina ekonomiska plikter, utan då lämna över ansvaret till mannen.37 Egendomsgemenskapens företrädare utgick främst från att kvinnor och män av naturen var annorlunda och hade olika uppgifter i samhället och fa- miljen. De fl esta av GKÄ-medlemmarna ville, liksom Nordenfeldt i en motion från 1874, bibehålla den traditionella ordningen i familjen med mannen som överhuvud.38 Kvinnans rätta plats var i hemmet och enbart i undantagsfall krävdes en lag för att värna kvinnans inkomst och förmögenhet. Därför ut-
36. Om den gifta qvinnans eganderätt 6:3, 1874, s. 7. 37. Motion AK 1873:92, s. 2f.; Första kammarens protokoll 1873:13, s. 49. 38. Motion FK 1874:6, s. 15–17. historisk tidskrift 128:2 • 2008 77 Finansiell verksamhet som ett socialt projekt 163 gick även Philipssons motion samma år från att kvinnor i ett sunt äktenskap skulle lämna över det ekonomiska ansvaret till sina män.39 Det fanns emellertid riksdagsledamöter som önskade en mer radikal om- daning av egendomsförhållandet i äktenskapet. Dessa var bland andra livför- säkringsmännen Gustaf Fridolf Almqvist och André Oscar Wallenberg, och bland GKÄ-medlemmarna Emil Key. Almqvist förordade i debatten i första kammaren full likställighet mellan mannen och kvinnan i egendomsrättsligt avseende: ”Jag har åtminstone icke kunnat fi nna något skäl dertill, att den ene skall betyda allt och hafva rättighet öfver allt och den andre betyda intet och sakna all rätt öfver jemväl det hon redan en gång förut ensam egt.”40 Almqvist menade vidare att äktenskapets dåvarande ordning inte var naturlig, utan kvinnans underordning härstammade från gamla tider. Han ifrågasatte också egendomsgemenskapens princip, som visserligen kunde låta vacker men var betydelselös. Det spelade heller ingen roll om kvinnan hade giftorätt i mannens egendom när det bara var mannen som hade förvaltningsrätt. Orsaken till att förhål- landet mellan kvinnor och män fortfarande bestod i över- och underordning var, enligt Almqvist, att mannen i äldre tider varit helt suverän. Den ställning han en gång intagit såg han som naturlig och bekväm och var således ovillig att lämna ifrån sig. ”Såsom det en gång var, så bör det alltjämt förblifva; man- nen har en gång varit verkligt suverän och hustrun en rättslös slaf.”41 Almqvist hävdade att det fanns historiska bevis för att kvinnan haft betydligt större infl ytande på den gemensamma ekonomin. Under medeltiden drog mannen ut i krig och kvinnan blev lämnad kvar att förvalta och sköta egendomen. Så kunde det fortfarande vara, främst inom allmogeklassen, framhöll han. Almqvist menade vidare att äktenskapsförordet endast var en detalj som förhindrade frågans verkliga lösning. Han påpekade att lagen borde moderni- seras eftersom man efter 1734 års lag erkände den gifta kvinnas egendomsrätt över fast egendom på landet. Vid sekelskiftet 1900 kunde en kvinnas kapital, enligt talaren, vara omfattande men inget behövde vara fast egendom. Emil Key vände sig mot ordningen att det var mannens frånfälle som gav kvinnan kapacitet att sköta sina angelägenheter. Ogifta kvinnor kunde inneha viktiga tjänster, men när hon gifte sig skulle hon inte ens tillåtas att hantera sina egen egendom. Att en gift kvinna skulle vara omyndig då den ogifta
39. FK protokoll 1873:13, s. 21f.; Motion AK 1874:10, s. 19–24. 40. FK protokoll 1873:13, s. 25. 41. FK protokoll 1873:13, s. 26.
historisk tidskrift 128:2 • 2008 78 164 Liselott Eriksson kvinnan vid en viss ålder var myndig, såg Key som en anomali och som orätt- färdigt: ”Jo, hon slösar med kärlek, ty hon har gjort offret af sin lagliga själv- ständighet, emedan lagen alltjemt så fodrar, och derföre skall hon fortfarande ställas i beroende av mannen!”42 Key ansåg att lagen behandlade den gifta kvinnan synnerligen orättvist och att lagar om kvinnans rättigheter alltid tillkommit när tiden varit övermogen. Detta berodde, enligt Key, på farhågor om oönskade effekter av reformer gällande kvinnans ställning. Ingen av de farhågor man trodde att lagen om ogift kvinnas myndighet vid 25 års ålder skulle medföra hade emellertid besannats, så varför skulle de göra det i detta fall? År 1884 lade Wallenberg i första kammaren och Stackelberg i andra kammaren var sin motion där de önskade att ”utan äktenskaps förord, man och hustru komme till all den rätt, som nu genom sådant kan dem beredas, att råda hvar öfver sin före eller under äktenskapet ärfda eller förvärfda egendom”.43 I andra kammaren stöddes motionen av Stackelberg, Norden- skiöld, Hedin, A. Key och Andersson (Östergötland). Motionerna skapade förhoppning bland landets kvinnorörelser och lagberedningen tog drygt två år på sig att utarbeta ett förslag utifrån motionerna.44 Ett förslag som dock bi- behöll mannens målsmanskap. Alla livförsäkringsmän som var medlemmar i GKÄ var naturligtvis inte riksdagsledamöter. Deras exakta uppfattning i gifta kvinnors egendomsför- hållanden är därför svåra att utröna, dock önskade alla en utökning av den gifta kvinnans rättigheter. Två livförsäkringsmän önskade även särägande och enskild förvaltning. Det framstår som att livförsäkringsmännen i riksdagen snarare gick kvin- norörelsens ärenden än livförsäkringsrörelsens. De framförde exempelvis aldrig livförsäkringsrörelsens fi nansiella intresse av att defi niera äganderätten och förändra skuldreglerna i giftermålsbalken.45 Tydligast illustreras detta av att livförsäkringsmännen inte pläderade för ett tillägg i giftermålsbalken om hur livförsäkringar skulle hanteras mellan makar, något som hade krävts även om särägande och enskild förvaltning hade vunnit stöd i riksdagen.46
42. FK protokoll 1873:13, s. 15. 43. Motion FK 1884:25, s. 7; Motion AK 1884:64, s. 5. 44. ”Om gift qvinnas eganderätt enligt nya lagberedningens förslag”, Dagny 1886, 1:11, s. 257–260. 45. Motion AK 1883:42; Motion FK 1884:25, s. 7; Motion AK 1884:64, s. 5. Dessa motioner lades eller stöddes av den Skandia anknutne André Oscar Wallenberg, Thules försäkringsläkare Axel Key och Johan Andersson sedermera inspektor i Skandinavien. 46. ”Försäkringsföreningens förhandlingar år 1883”, FFT 1884, s. 16. historisk tidskrift 128:2 • 2008 79 Finansiell verksamhet som ett socialt projekt 165 Försäkringsmännen förordade visserligen en individualisering av ägande- rätten och försvarade transaktioner av typen boskillnad, som upplöste äkten- skapet som ekonomisk enhet. Trots detta kan man inte hävda att livförsäk- ringsmännen agerade i egenskap av livförsäkringsmän då de sammanfatt- ningsvis menade att de gifta kvinnornas omyndiga ställning var oförenlig med den pågående demokratiseringen av samhället. Argumentationen rörde främst vad den gifta kvinnan kunde. Hennes omyndighetstillstånd berodde inte på ringa förmåga utan på gamla traditioner. Därför ansåg man att den gifta kvinnan borde få delta i ekonomisk aktivitet på samma sätt som ogifta. Man kan inte heller hävda att livförsäkringsmännen hade en gemensam agenda, då det rådde olika uppfattningar om hur gifta kvinnors äganderätt borde vara utformad. Det innebär att det antingen var oklart vilken lagstift- ning som bäst gynnade livbolagen, eller att livförsäkringsmännens politiska idéer saknade direkt koppling till deras ekonomiska intressen i livförsäkrings- industrin. Philipssons motion 1874 styrktes av lagutskottet på vissa punkter och lagutskottets förslag kom sedan att bifallas utan votering och debatt, till förvåning för GKÄ:s styrelse.47 Lagen blev en besvikelse för många medlem- mar, som ansåg att den partiella framgången med 1874 års lag i praktiken var ett hinder för fortsatta reformer. Trots att fl era motioner presenterades, av- slogs dessa i riksdagens lagutskott utan någon debatt. Bland föreningens kvinnor ökade kritiken mot riksdagsmännen, vilka betraktades som fega och utan engagemang.48 Föreningens styrelse ansåg att frågan om gifta kvinnors äganderätt hade större möjligheter att drivas framgångsrikt inom Fredrika- Bremer-Förbundet (FBF), som grundats 1884. FBF hade också en mer heltäck- ande agenda för kampen för kvinnors rättigheter och slutligen anslöt sig GKÄ till FBF 1895.
Livförsäkringen och gift kvinnas äganderätt efter 1874 1874 års lag om gift kvinnas rätt att förvalta sin egendom innebar för den gifta kvinnan att hon genom äktenskapsförord kunde undandra mannen för- valtningsrätten och fi ck rätt att förfoga över sin egen inkomst. En gift kvinna kunde även vinna förvaltningsrätt om hon förvärvade egendom genom gåva eller arv, med villkor att hon enskilt skulle handha egendomen. Lagen bibehöll
47. Om den gifta qvinnans eganderätt 6:6, 1874, s. 6. 48. ”Om den gifta qvinnans eganderätt”, Tidskrift för hemmet 6, 1878, s. 10–17.
historisk tidskrift 128:2 • 2008 80 166 Liselott Eriksson dock mannens överordning i äktenskapet, då kvinnan hade möjlighet att av- säga sig sin myndighet. Försäkrings-inspektörs-föreningen49 lade i Försäkringsföreningen 1893 fram giftermålsbalkens juridiska konsekvenser för livförsäkringen.50 Det enda lagen 1874 innebar var att den gifta kvinnan nu hade möjlighet att få förvalt- ningsrätt över sin enskilda egendom. Men detta förbättrade inte möjlig- heterna för gifta kvinnor att skydda livförsäkringar från borgenärer och gynnade därför inte livförsäkringsrörelsen. Livförsäkringen behövde fort- farande bli kvinnans enskilda egendom för att vara någorlunda skyddad från borgenärer. För att åstadkomma detta krävdes samma transaktioner som före lagen om gift kvinnas förvaltningsrätt. Men här innebar det, som tidigare nämnts, att hustruns enskilda egendom, dit livförsäkringar kunde hänföras via äktenskapsförord eller gåva, i vissa fall ändå kunde svara för den sam- fällda skulden.51 Till skydd för hustrun infördes 1898 regler om sådan skuld som mannen orsakat det samfällda boet och det blev även lättare för hustrun att vinna boskillnad. Förändringarna påverkade dock inte skuldfrågan nämnvärt.52 Det är anmärkningsvärt att det fortfarande framemot sekelskiftet 1900 var oklart vilka rättsverkningar som kunde förväntas av de ovannämnda transak- tionerna, både för gifta kvinnor och för borgenärer. Exempelvis var det osä- kert vad resultatet blev om borgenären vidhöll ett äktenskapsförords ogiltig- het, och om det var borgenären eller förmånstagaren som hade bevisbördan. En annan fråga var hur stor del av en livförsäkring en borgenär var berättigad till. Oklarheterna rörde framför allt om borgenären hade rätt till hela försäk- ringssumman eller bara de inbetalade premierna.53 Samtidigt nämns inga konkreta rättsfall i Försäkringsföreningens tidskrift, därdär problemenproblemen förför enen giftgift kvinna och borgenärers krav på försäkringssumman hade aktualiserats.54 Ju- risten Lars Tottie menar att lagstiftningsåtgärderna i giftermålsbalken under 1800-talet ledde till ett svåröverskådligt system. Därför är det inte säkert att livförsäkringsmännen hade alla juridiska fakta klara för sig kring hur livför-
49. Försäkringsinspektörer hade ansvar för försäkringsagenter på fältet och svarade mot huvudkon- toret. 50. Detta blev sedan en motion lagd 1895 av Wavrinsky. 51. FFT 1893, s.143, 149; LB 1918, s. 148. 52. LB 1918, s. 148f. 53. FFT 1893, s. 143f. 54. Däremot hänvisade Försäkringsföreningen 1884 till ett rättsfall i Finland där en gift kvinna fi ck rätt mot en borgenär; ”Försäkringsföreningens förhandlingar år 1883”, FFT 1884, s. 14. historisk tidskrift 128:2 • 2008 81 Finansiell verksamhet som ett socialt projekt 167 säkringar skulle komma att hanteras, då det fanns en mängd potentiella juri- diska scenarier.55 Före 1903 års försäkringslag var livförsäkringsrörelsen självreglerad, vilket innebar att det av försäkringsbolaget och försäkringstagaren upprättade kontraktet vägde tungt samtidigt som bolagen hade att ta hänsyn till rådande lagstiftning, bland annat gällande transaktioner som reglerades av egendoms- gemenskap.56 Det hade betydelse inte minst därför att livförsäkringar inte enbart behövde vara ämnade för änkan och barnens försörjning. Eftersom livförsäkringar även kunde nyttjas som säkerhet vid exempelvis banklån, då säkerheten kunde tas i anspråk i händelse av låntagarens frånfälle eller kon- kurs, var även villkoren för borgenären viktiga för livförsäkringsrörelsen.
Mot en lag om försäkringsavtal Det fanns således problem med att den gifta kvinnans och borgenärens rätt till livförsäkringssumman inte var juridiskt defi nierade, något som försäk- ringsinspektörerna, vars yrke innebar att övervaka försäljningen av livförsäk- ringar, uppmärksammade i Försäkringsföreningen år 1893.57 År 1895, två decennier efter tillkomsten av lagen om gift kvinnas förvalt- ningsrätt, lade Edvard Wavrinsky, styrelsemedlem i Allmänna understödsför- eningen för Lifförsäkring, en motion i andra kammaren gällande livförsäk- ringens ställning att tilläggas i giftermålsbalken. Han önskade att livförsäk- ringar skulle undandras egendomsgemenskapen mellan makar. Om en livför- säkring tagits på mannens liv till hustruns förmån skulle den bli hennes en- skilda egendom. Motionen krävde inga övriga förändringar av makars egen- domsförhållanden.58 Motionen stöddes inte av övriga försäkringsmän i riks- dagen och motionen avslogs utan debatt. Sven Palme lade däremot samma år och i samma kammare som Wavrinsky en motion med syfte att verka för en reglering av utländska bolags verksamhet i Sverige samt för en ökad statlig kontroll av försäkringsbranschen.59 Palme var alltså främst intresserad av att motverka utländsk konkurrens och det som uppfattades som oseriösa försäk- ringsbolag på marknaden. I slutet av 1800- och början av 1900-talet var alltså
55. Tottie 1990, s. 99. Inga prejudicerande fall i frågan redovisas under avdelningen prejudikat i ”Alfabetiskt sakregister till årg. 1878–98 af Försäkringsföreningens tidskrift”, FFT 1898, s. 99f. 56. ”Riksdagens skrivelse till konungen i anledning af väckt motion ang. utarbetandet af lag om för- säkringsaftal”, FFT 1905, s. 154. 57. FFT 1893, s. 139–153. 58. Motion AK 1895:159, s. 17. 59. Motion AK 1895:16.
historisk tidskrift 128:2 • 2008 82 168 Liselott Eriksson regleringar gällande premiereserver, omkostnader och bolagsordningar samt begränsningar av utländska försäkringsbolags verksamhet i Sverige betydligt viktigare frågor än livförsäkringens ställning i relation till äktenskapslagstift- ningen.60 Det ansågs mer angeläget att stävja det som uppfattades som illojal konkurrens från oseriösa bolag, vilket riskerade att underminera hela bran- schens trovärdighet, än att klargöra frågor som gällde potentiella civilrätts- liga konfl ikter angående rätten till ett livförsäkringsbrev där bolaget redan fullföljt sina förpliktelser mot förmånstagaren. Vidare kunde en livförsäk- ring, trots att en borgenär fi ck rätt till delar av dödsboets tillgångar, förhindra att änka och barn behövde lämna hus och hem. Majoriteten av försäkrings- männen ansåg därför att frågan om gift kvinnas äganderätt inte var av högsta prioritet.61 I den första lagen för försäkringsväsendet i Sverige från 1903 sattes främst fokus på etableringskontroll gällande livbolagens kapitalförvaltning. Men re- dan 1905 lades en motion för att verka för en försäkringsavtalslag som bland annat skulle reglera förmånstagares och borgenärers rättigheter. Lagutskottet menade dock i sitt utlåtande att en sådan lag inte var helt önskvärd, då bo- lagen själva gjorde upp avtal och eftersom redan existerande lagar var till- räckliga.62 Sven Palme var av samma åsikt som utskottet och menade att avtalsutform- ningen mellan försäkringsbolag och försäkringstagare ännu inte vunnit stadga och fortfarande var i en livlig utveckling. Han menade även att missförhål- landena inte var av sådant art att en sådan lag påkallades och att det i 1903 års lag om försäkringsrörelse bland annat föreskrevs att vissa av de viktigaste försäkringsvillkoren skulle fastställas av Kungl. Maj:t. Han ansåg att ”privat- rättsliga förhållanden bäst utvecklade sig i frihetens lifgivande luft”.63 1903 års lag innebar även att kontraktet mellan livförsäkringsbolag och försäkringstagare fi ck visst lagligt stöd och praxis gällande livförsäkringsbre- vets upprättande, syfte och innehåll infördes inom de olika bolagen i början av 1900-talet.64 Att den gifta kvinnan 1921 likställdes med mannen inom äktenskapet innebar att det samfällda boet upplöstes och att makarna kunde ingå avtal med varandra. Först 1927 defi nierades livförsäkringen juridiskt i
60. Lindmark, Andersson & Adams 2006, s. 355. 61. ”Till kungl. Försäkringsinspektionen”, FFT 1906, s. 34–36. 62. Lagutskottets utlåtande 1905:63. 63. ”Lagstiftning om försäkringsaftalet”, FFT 1905, s. 161f. 64. Mats Larsson, Mikael Lönnborg & Sven-Erik Svärd, Den svenska försäkringsmodellens uppgång och fall, SStockholmtockholm 2005, s. 55. historisk tidskrift 128:2 • 2008 83 Finansiell verksamhet som ett socialt projekt 169 förmånsfrågan i försäkringsavtalslagen, och förmånstagarens och borgenä- rens rätt till livförsäkringen reglerades. Det försäkringsbelopp som utföll skulle inte ingå i försäkringstagarens kvarlåtenskap. Borgenärer kunde få rätt till försäkringsbeloppet om försäkringstagarens kvarlåtenskap inte täckte skulden och om försäkringstagaren inte förbundit sig till förmånstagaren att förordnandet skulle stå vid makt.65 Lagen om försäkringsavtal, som tillkom 1927 och reglerade förmånstaga- rens rättigheter, hade möjligen uppkommit tidigare om det samfällda boet upplösts i ett tidigare skede. Före 1921 hade en lag om den gifta kvinnans äganderätt till livförsäkringen gått emot den rådande giftermålsbalken med egendomsgemenskap och villkorad förvaltningsrätt för gifta kvinnor. Samti- digt stred 1874 års lag om gift kvinnas förvaltningsrätt enligt Karl Staaf mot lagen om näringsfrihet från 1846.66 Därför är det svårt att mer exakt avgöra hur betydande frågan om gift kvinnas äganderätt var för att livförsäkringsrö- relsen skulle kunna garantera gifta kvinnor i alla fall en del av livförsäkrings- summan efter mannens död. Frågan om gift kvinnas rätt till livförsäkringen måste dock bedömas ha varit av marginellt intresse för livförsäkringsrörelsens dagliga verksamhet. De fl esta livförsäkringstagare hade troligtvis inte skulder som hotade ruinera änka och barn om inte livförsäkringssumman kunde undandras borgenärerna. Vidare var gifta kvinnors utökade förvaltningsrätt ovidkommande för livför- säkringsrörelsen, så länge livförsäkringar kunde betraktas som mannens kvarlåtenskap och borgenärer fortfarande kunde komma åt livförsäkringssum- man på änkans bekostnad. Däremot skulle den gifta kvinnans äganderättsliga ställning stärkas i och med en utökad förvaltningsrätt. Men i de fl esta fall var i stället försäljningen av livförsäkringar gynnad av den gifta kvinnans svaga ställning. Hemmafruidealet och de försörjningskrav som sattes på en rättrå- dig make även efter hans död, gynnade troligen livförsäkringens förutsätt- ningar mer än en lag som stärkte gifta kvinnors förvaltningsrätt. Utifrån detta är det tveksamt om männen inom livförsäkringsrörelsen stödde GKÄ av hänsyn till egna ekonomiska intressen, särskilt som livförsäk- ringsmännen Edvard Wavrinsky, Arvid Gumaelius, Hugo Gyldén, Axel Key, Johan Palme och Gösta Mittag-Leffl er även blev medlemmar i FBF efter att GKÄ anslutit sig till förbundet 1895.67
65. Första lagutskottets utlåtande 1927, 14:III: Om livförsäkring, § 104, § 116, s. 47f. 66. Om den gifta qvinnans eganderätt 4:4, 1892, s. 55–57. 67. ”Fredrika-Bremer-Förbundets medlemmar”, Dagny 4:5, 1895, s. 199, 205–221.
historisk tidskrift 128:2 • 2008 84 170 Liselott Eriksson Livförsäkringsmännen och den sociala dimensionen För att förstå livförsäkringsmännen och deras handlande bör det noteras att de inte främst var försäkringsmän. De hade fl era ekonomiska, sociala och politiska identiteter, och bland dem som besatt olika poster inom livförsäk- ringsrörelsen återfanns vetenskapsmän, militärer, fi nansmän och riksdags- män. Aktörerna från livförsäkringsrörelsen tillhörde i stor utsträckning den framväxande borgarklassen. Enligt historikern David Tjeder kan borgarklas- sen under 1800-talet defi nieras som en konturlös sammansättning av män och kvinnor i diversifi erad ekonomisk ställning, som i kraft av delade kulturella ideal lyckades dominera det offentliga samtalet i Sverige.68 För många i bor- garklassen innebar detta delaktighet inom en mängd olika sociala och ekono- miska rörelser med liberala förtecken.69 Engagemanget för sociala frågor åskådliggörs även i försäkringsmännens roller som riksdagsmän och i deras politiska aktiviteter. Försäkringsmännen motionerade för statlig arbetareförsäkring, för moderskapsförsäkring och för allmän folkpensionsförsäkring. André Oscar Wallenberg motionerade för sänkt kvinnlig myndighetsålder och för gift kvinnas förvaltningsrätt, och Ed- vard Wavrinsky för kvinnlig rösträtt. Försäkringsmännen Carl Johan Malmsten och Gustaf Fridolf Almqvist, båda ledamöter i Skandia, Hugo Gyldén och Sven Palme, aktuarie respektive direktör i Thule, Anders Lind- stedt, aktuarie i Allmänna Lif, samt yrkespolitikern Adolf Hedin satt även i olika kommittéer som rörde ålderdoms- och invaliditetsförsäkring, allmän pensionsförsäkring och arbetareförsäkring.70 Det var Gyldén, Hedin och Lindstedt som genom sina platser i kommittén för arbetareförsäkring låg bakom den moderna socialförsäkringen. Redan 1884 lade Hedin och Gyldén en motion i frågan. Den yngre Lindstedt tog sedan över arbetet och fi ck se frågan realiseras 1913, då Sverige blev det första landet i världen att införa allmän folkpension.71 Pläderandet för ett utökat statligt försäkringssystem var omfattande trots att det kunde innebära förlorade marknadsandelar för den privata försäkringsrörelsen. Folkpensionen kom mycket riktigt att bli ett argu-
68. David Tjeder, ”Framgång med förpliktelser”, i Tomas Nilson & Martin Åberg (red.), Företagaren som kulturbärare: perspektiv på företagarkultur 1800–2000, Lund 2007, s. 40. 69. I Sverige anses den ekonomiska liberalismens genombrott ha ägt rum kring 1820 och den poli- tiska liberalismens genombrott kring 1830; Hans Abelius, Det självpåtagna uppdraget: en undersökning av medborgarprojektet kring Östgötha correspondenten 1840–1870, Göteborg 2007, s. 25. 70. Svensk rikskalender, StockholmStockholm 1908, s. 600. 71. Karl Englund, Skandiamän och andra försäkringsmän 1855–1970: femtio biografi ska studier, Stockholm 1993, s. 122–124. historisk tidskrift 128:2 • 2008 85 Finansiell verksamhet som ett socialt projekt 171 ment för potentiella kunder att inte ta en privat livförsäkring.72 Viljan bland försäkringsmän att delta i någon av dessa kommittéer var stor, trots att för- säkringsmännen knappast saknade pengar eller alternativa arbetsuppgifter.73 Man skall inte heller underskatta det infl ytande som kvinnor hade på för- säkringsmännen. De försäkringsmän som var med i GKÄ hade i regel an- tingen fruar, systrar eller döttrar som var aktiva i föreningen. I försäkrings- männens nätverk ingick ledande kvinnor inom kvinnorörelsen som Anna Hierta, Sveriges första kvinnliga professor Sonja Kovalevsky, Ellen Key och Anna Wallenberg, hustru till André Oscar Wallenberg. Aktuarien i Victoria Gösta Mittag-Leffl ers syster Anne Charlotte Leffl er var författare och skrev dramat ”Sanna kvinnor”, som påstods ha fått stort infl ytande på opinionen i frågan om gift kvinnas äganderätt.74 Grundarna av GKÄ värvade medlemmar främst ur sitt eget sociala nätverk, från det borgerliga sällskapslivet och från föreningslivet i Stockholm.75 Inom borgerligheten frodades även ett bildningsideal som omfattade män och kvinnor ur alla samhällsskikt, bäst illustrerat av Stockholms arbetarein- stitut.76 Även här var försäkringsmännen aktiva. Hugo Gyldén var exempelvis inspektor på institutet 1883–1896 och Edvard Wavrinsky tog initiativ till arbetarinstitutet i Göteborg och blev dess första föreståndare.77 Wavrinsky startade också Göteborgs fredsförening och anordnade det första nordiska fredsmötet i Göteborg. Ett år senare blev han även ordenschef i Godtemplarorden, där han ville reformera rörelsen i mer sekulär riktning.78 Gustaf Fridolf Almqvist var även ledamot i styrelsen för Hemmet för frigifna
72. Borgh tar upp argument och föreställningar om livförsäkringen och motiverar varför man bör lösa livförsäkring trots folkpension; Per Borgh, Försäkringspraktik: populära skrifter om lifförsäkring, Växjö 1913, s. 7f. 73. Englund beskriver hur Hugo Gyldén (aktuarie Thule) och Gösta Mittag-Leffl er (aktuarie Victo- ria) konkurrerade om en plats i kommittén för arbetareförsäkring; Englund (1993) s. 65. 74. Svenska män och kvinnor, 2, red. Nils Bohman, Stockholm 1942, s. 506. 75. Studentföreningen Verdandi, Dräktreformföreningen, Fredrika-Bremer-Förbundet, Idun, Nya Idun, Kråkorna och Handarbetets vänner. Om dessa föreningar, se t.ex. Gurli Linder, Sällskapsliv i Stockholm under 1880–1890-talen, Stockholm 1918. 76. Iwan Bolin, Stockholms arbetareinstitut 50 år: 1880–1930, Stockholm 1930, s. 7. 77. Andra försäkringsmän aktiva i Stockholms arbetareinstitut: Axel Key, försäkringsläkare Thule, Sven Palme, Thule, Karl Arvid Gumaelius, Allmänna Lifförsäkringsbolaget i Stockholm, H. Lamm, för- säkringsläkare Skandia, Wilhelm Walldén, Ränte- och kapitalförsäkringsanstalten i Stockholm, Johan Leffl er, Victoria, Fabian Wrede, Skandia; Bolin1930 , s. 130–133; ”Försäkringsföreningens ledamöter år 1875”, FFT 1875, s. 1–3; ”Försäkringsföreningens ledamöter år 1880”, FFT 1880, s. 1–3; FFT 1883, s. 20–45. 78. Waldemar Skarstedt, Nykterhetens banerförare: biografi er af nutida svenska nykterhetskämpar, Stockholm 1903, s. 51–59.
historisk tidskrift 128:2 • 2008 86 172 Liselott Eriksson qvinnor i Stockholm.79 Flera livförsäkringsmän i styrelseposition var således aktiva i fi lantropiska sammanhang. Gösta Mittag-Leffl er, som också var matematiker, förde dock idén om bildningsidealet en nivå högre och lyckades under hårt motstånd styra så att en kvinna för första gången i Sverige blev professor. År 1889 blev Sonja Kova- levsky professor i matematik och den första kvinnliga medlemmen i försäk- ringsföreningen 1885. Det var även ett ingripande av Mittag-Leffl er i Kung- liga Vetenskapsakademien som möjliggjorde att Marie Curie tillsammans med sin make och en medarbetare tilldelades Nobelpriset år 1903.80 Kritiken mot Mittag-Leffl ers handlande var hård i akademiska kretsar, medan han själv såg sitt bidrag i tillsättandet av Sveriges första kvinnliga professor som en av sina främsta livsgärningar.81 Enligt Tjeder betraktades företagande och ekonomisk egennytta som omoraliskt under tidigt 1800-tal. Efter sekelmitten började dock denna före- ställning att förändras, men enligt det borgerliga idealet var det viktigt att ekonomisk vinstmaximering och framgång även skulle komma det resterande samhället till del. Traktandet efter snöd rikedom var alltså problematisk och den som nådde framgång var förpliktigad att söka förbättra sina medmän- niskors villkor och hela sin samtids förkovran.82 Även för livförsäkringsrörel- sen blev det viktigt att övertyga allmänheten om att verksamheten präglades av socialt patos.83 Detta var en av anledningarna till att den ömsesidiga bo- lagsformen blev dominerande bland de nya bolagen i slutet av 1800-talet.84 Man ville ge intryck av att livförsäkringsrörelsen skilde sig från annan vinst- maximerande verksamhet. Det bolag som främst representerade den solida- riska livförsäkringen var Thule, som trots att det var ett aktiebolag införde ömsesidiga bolagsformer genom att bolagsordningen begränsade utdelning- arna både procentuellt och absolut. Detta innebar att en gradvis större andel av vinsten tillföll försäkringstagarna.85 Fastän Thulemännen var aktieägare i
79. Anna Jansdotter, Ansikte mot ansikte: räddningsarbete bland prostituerade kvinnor i Sverige 1850–1920, Eslöv 2004, s. 57. 80. Inger Hammar, ”Alma maters sedliga döttrar”, i Eva Österberg & Christina Carlsson Wetterberg (red.), Rummet vidgas: kvinnor på väg ut i offentligheten 1880–1940, Stockholm 2002, s. 119. 81. Gunnel Weidel Randver, Sonja Kovalevsky: en levnadsteckning, StockholmStockholm 1981, s. 99. 82. David Tjeder, The power of character: middle-class masculinities, 1800–1900, Stockholm 2003, s. 230–232. 83. Vivian A. Zelizer Rotman, Morals and markets: the development of the life insurance in the United States, New York 1979, s. 94. 84. Lönnborg 1999, s. 63. 85. Englund 1982, s. 148f. historisk tidskrift 128:2 • 2008 87 Finansiell verksamhet som ett socialt projekt 173 det egna bolaget var möjligheterna att tjäna pengar på livförsäkringsrörelsen begränsade genom deras försorg. De kan alltså inte ha företrätt egna aktieä- garintressen genom sina likställighetspolitiska ställningstaganden. Den bolagsform som lanserades av Thule fi ck stort genomslag inom livför- säkringsbranschen och Thule blev med tiden ett av Nordens största livförsäk- ringsbolag. I likhet med Thule antog de nästkommande livbolagen olika ömse- sidiga principer i sina bolagsformer.86 Samtidigt kom de rent ömsesidiga bola- gen att stöttas av fristående aktiebolag som kunde skjuta till pengar i hän- delse av svag soliditet. Bolagens vinster vann således social acceptans genom att de maskerades i fi lantropiska termer. Konkret motsvarades det av att vin- sterna i aktiebolagen bara i ytterst begränsad utsträckning tillföll aktieägarna, medan vinsterna i de ömsesidiga bolagen helt tillföll försäkringstagarna. Detta kan ses som ett uttryck för att den borgerliga kulturen under denna tid föreskrev att ett framgångsrikt företagande även innebar ett socialt an- svarstagande. De liberala strömningarna och den borgerliga kulturen som spreds i Sverige kring sekelskiftet 1900 gav således upphov till en allmän och förpliktigande strävan att förbättra marginaliserade gruppers villkor och att förbättra och modernisera samhället i stort. Mycket tyder på att ett socialt engagemang symboliserade en, i vissa kretsar, eftersträvansvärd progressiv och modern inställning till samhället. Att försäkringsbolagen ville framstå som en del av den moderna kulturen, och att företagskulturerna formades av de rådande idéströmningarna, är därför inte särskilt förvånande.
Livförsäkringen som aktiv socialpolitik Förklaringen till livförsäkringsmännens engagemang i sociala frågor kan inte på ett enkelt sätt kategoriseras som antingen socialt patos eller vinstmaxime- ring. Å ena sidan var de goda affärsmän som troligen använde sitt sociala intresse för att legitimera sin rörelse genom en progressiv framtoning.87 Det är troligt att de värderingar som låg till grund för livförsäkringsmännens sociala engagemang i förlängningen också bidrog till att göra bolagen fram- gångsrika, då det var av betydelse att kunna motivera ekonomisk verksamhet som en samhällsförbättrande insats. Att gifta kvinnor saknade äganderätt var
86. Livförsäkringsaktiebolaget Victoria införde ett ännu generösare vinståterbäringssystem än Thule. Victorias försök med arbetarförsäkring blev dock inte speciellt framgångsrikt utan det var det ömsesi- diga livbolaget Trygg som år 1899 införde den första framgångsrika folkförsäkringen; Kuuse & Olsson 2000, s. 65. År 1901 startade bl.a. Thule och Skandia, efter engelskt mönster, Lifförsäkrings-Aktiebolaget De Förenade, för att konkurrera på marknaden för arbetsförsäkring; Englund 1982, s. 230. 87. Tjeder 2003, s. 230–232.
historisk tidskrift 128:2 • 2008 88 174 Liselott Eriksson inte ett stort problem för livförsäkringsrörelsen, men det är möjligt att en snabb lösning på deras äganderättsliga problem hade gynnat livförsäkringen ytterligare. Å andra sidan var livförsäkringsmännens engagemang mer än ett spel för gallerierna, då deras syn på kvinnors rättigheter och delaktighet i samhället måste tolkas som progressiv. Eftersom livförsäkringar även fyllde rollen som säkerhet vid låntagande och skuldsättning behövde änkans försörjning heller inte vara livförsäkringens enda syfte.88 Livförsäkringsmännens deltagande i GKÄ visar snarare att kvinnor och kvinnors villkor var integrerade i den fi - nansiella utvecklingen på andra sätt än i vinstmaximerande syfte. Detta un- derstryks ytterligare av att livförsäkringsmännens önskan att hävda gifta kvinnors rätt till livförsäkring inte hade krävt ett medlemskap i GKÄ. Många av livförsäkringsmännen var även föregångsmän i frågor som allmän rösträtt, sänkt myndighetsålder för ogifta kvinnor och införandet av folkpen- sion, reformer som knappast kunde generera direkta ekonomiska fördelar för aktörerna. Med hjälp av Joel Mokyrs begrepp den industriella upplysningen kan livförsäkringsmännens agerade med parallella aktiviteter på sociala om- råden tolkas som att de ansåg att ekonomiska förbättringar även förutsatte förbättringar på sociala och moraliska områden i samhället. Folkbildning, bland annat genom arbetareinstituten, skulle ge moralisk förbättring bland befolkningen och generera värderingar som gynnade den moderna fi nansiella utvecklingen.89 De ekonomiska och sociala verksamheterna sågs som integre- rade, vilket visas genom livförsäkringsmännens arbete för olika rättvisefrågor. Engagemanget för gifta kvinnor var alltså del i en större strävan till förbätt- ring av samhället genom motarbetandet av konservativa värderingar som hörde det förindustriella samhället till. Integreringen av det sociala och det ekonomiska innebar att livförsäkringsmännen kunde framställa och konstru- era själva livförsäkringsverksamheten som ett socialt projekt och som en so- cial innovation. Livförsäkringsrörelsens idé motiverades således utifrån en samhällsförbättrande funktion på samma sätt som arbetarrörelsen, kvinnorö- relsen och nykterhetsrörelsen, och den var en del av det liberala, borgerliga projektet för modernisering och demokratisering av samhället.
88. Clark 1997, s. 28–35. 89. Mokyr 2005, s. 290f. historisk tidskrift 128:2 • 2008 89 Finansiell verksamhet som ett socialt projekt 175 Summary: Financial activities as a social project: the life insurance industry and married women in the late 19th-century
This article investigates the involvement of life insurance brokers in the fi rst Swedish organization for women’s rights: the organization for married women’s property rights. The social commitment of these men meant that the same persons were involved in idealistic movements and the pursuit of economic gain. This fact, in turn, points towards an interdependence between social and fi nancial activities during the second half of the 19th- century. Therefore, this study criticises the dominant assumptions both that 19th-century businessmen were driven by self-interest to maximize profi ts and that economic interests fostered the democratic process. Instead this study argues that social commitment was integrated with, and considered a part of, economic growth and contributed to economic and social change. This implies that 19th-century life insurance business cannot be understood by present-day assumptions of economic behaviour.
historisk tidskrift 128:2 • 2008 90 6 CONCLUSIONS
From the immediate eve of the life insurance industry, high demand was put on ordinary people to have basic financial knowledge and understanding of the life insurance transaction. The results of this licentiate thesis suggests that these requirements were unrealistic in the 19th century while the output of useful knowledge generated in the financial industry had specific problems compared to the output generated by useful knowledge in a non-financial industry. In a non-financial industry the output usually is consumer goods. In the financial industry, on the other hand, the output could be a life insurance contract, a service much more complicated and demanding on the part of the consumer. This licentiate thesis argues that a certain level of knowledge was needed among the public before the usual demand-side factors like income and price had a considerable impact on demand. Therefore this study claims that the gap between estimated and real premium incomes also was due to the discrepancy between what people needed to know for buying a life insurance and what people in reality did knew. The convergence was realised by, among other things, reduced access costs regarding the output of useful knowledge in the life insurance industry – a life insurance contract. This was in turn accomplished by organisational and insurance technical knowledge in shape of a more extensive organisation of insurance agents and the adjustment of the life insurance to broader groups in society. These adjustments resulted in a wide public use of life insurance, with a large part of the Swedish public as a target group. The life insurance industry could because of this continue to develop and expand. The issue of trust has been put forward in the literature and the actions of life insurance actors might have been strategies to improve trust towards the industry. This could be needed while both companies in the novel insurance industry and old mutual societies not funded on insurance technical principles occasionally failed to keep their promises to the insured. Among these companies could also fraudulent companies be found, using the ignorance of people for selling life insurance contracts on shaky grounds, risking the reputation of the life insurance industry. This created insecurity and could result in a situation where consumers were unable to rank the quality of individual insurers. The lack of trust could with other words in some cases be regarded as a consequence of lacking knowledge. The ideal scenario for stability and expansion of the life insurance industry was with other words, and still is, a situation where both the industry and a major part of the society had enough knowledge – the industry to make reliable actuarial estimates and adjust their
91 products to the market, and – the public to have basic financial knowledge to buy a life insurance and evaluate the reliability of the insurance company. The conditions for economic growth were however due to improved access to knowledge in society at large and could imply other aspects than purely economical. Useful knowledge could also be progressive and democratic ideas, which were diffused through social networks, universities and other social groups. The 19th century life insurance actors were engaged in social movements where democratic ideas and the diffusion of knowledge to the working classes was a primary priority. The economic interest of the insurance actors joining these movements is hard to establish; therefore the life insurance industry of the 19th century, is not likely to be understood by present-day assumptions of economic behaviour. The significance of the dynamics of the general society in the development of the life insurance industry, and how women’s rights became an issue for the industry, further exemplifies the integration of social and economic factors in the making of the Swedish life insurance market.
92 7 Sources and literature
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