Atlantic County Library System

UnCovered review by Frank Tomasello, ACLS Mays Landing Branch

This fascinating work is far more than its title implies. Although Hannah Farber’s Underwriters of the United States: How Insurance Shaped the American Founding is indeed the story of maritime insurance underwriting at the dawn of the United States, it is really the story of how America came to be by examining early American economics as a whole, as well as its early nation building.

Most Americans today take for granted that the Revolution was fought to secure our “Freedom.” Few ever stop to consider what the early Americans were looking for the “Freedom” to actually do, which was essentially to engage in commerce. In this book, the author makes a compelling case that the Revolution was more a trade war than a political or moral exercise. In the chaos that marked the run up to the Revolution, as well as the post war decades, only one group had the expertise and was stable enough to guide the new nation in areas of commerce, finance and law, the merchants. Since merchants usually depend on sea transportation of goods to trade with which to earn a livelihood, they had the contacts, both here and abroad, the knowledge of how the supply chain actually worked and what it really needed to stay running, and the capital (money) to keep it all going. Out of necessity, these merchants would pool their money and expertise to “underwrite” or insure maritime trade, thus creating the first American insurance companies. To reduce their risk, they also became bankers, and through their choice of investments, shaped the nascent United States by investing in government bonds. All of this played out against the back drop of nearly ceaseless European wars fought largely at sea. It is precisely this mutual dependence of the government, the banks, and the underwriters that the nation of the United States as we know it came to be.

I recommend this book to anyone looking for a deeper understanding of the birth of America.