Podcast on the early history of Insurance
Before heading over to London I sent off an email to Prof. Robin Pearson of Hull University and asked if we could meet. Prof. Pearson is the author of a book titled Insuring the Industrial Revolution. I had recently purchased this book for the LMI library and found it to be extremely interesting.
Prof. Pearson was about to go off on leave and it turned out that he and I would only be in the UK on the one day and he kindly agreed to catch the train down to London from Yorkshire where he lives to meet and discuss his research.
I regard it as a privilege to meet people in our industry such as Robin who have such a great passion for general insurance and have generated so much knowledge and who are willing to share it with others. I asked Prof. Pearson if we could film part of our discussion for a InsuranceByte podcast and Robin was happy to oblige.
In fact Prof. Pearson was extremely generous with his time and we ended up filming 3 podcasts as he had so much to talk about. Before I bring you this, the first of those podcasts, I would like to thank Robin for being so generous with his time and knowledge. He even gave me another book for the library.
Secondly, I would like to recommend the book if you are interested in gaining a better understanding of our industry. Prof. Pearson has really completed a very detailed study of the archives of nearly 50 English and Scottish insurance companies founded between 1696 and 1850 – virtually all the records currently available – along with many new datasets on output, performance and markets. As a result, the book presents one of the most comprehensive histories ever written of a financial service. You can obtain a copy at: http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9780754633631
Finally, I would apologise for the background noise. We were not able to film this in our studio for obvious reasons and for convenience to Robin we met at the beautiful St. Pancras Hotel adjacent to St. Pancras Railway Station where Robin travelled into from Yorkshire.
To view the podcast click which I hope you find as interesting as I did please click here: