The term Sklavenkasse (slave fund) was a

travel Travel is the movement of people between distant geographical locations. Travel can be done by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, bus, airplane, ship or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip. Travel c ...

and ransom insurance scheme designated to pay ransom for European seafarers who had been captured by

Barbary Pirates The Barbary pirates, or Barbary corsairs or Ottoman corsairs, were Muslim pirates and privateers who operated from North Africa, based primarily in the ports of Salé, Rabat, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, Libya, Tripoli. This area was known i ...

in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

and off the coasts of

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...

and sold into the

Barbary slave trade The Barbary slave trade involved slave markets on the Barbary Coast of North Africa, which included the Ottoman states of Algeria, Tunisia and Tripolitania and the independent sultanate of Morocco, between the 16th and 19th century. The Ottom ...

. Several North German

free imperial cities In the Holy Roman Empire, the collective term free and imperial cities (german: Freie und Reichsstädte), briefly worded free imperial city (', la, urbs imperialis libera), was used from the fifteenth century to denote a self-ruling city that ...

set up their own slave funds which existed until the mid 19th century. The earliest slave funds were created in the 17th century by members of the

Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League (; gml, Hanse, , ; german: label=Modern German, Deutsche Hanse) was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe. Growing from a few North German to ...

. Later, in the middle of the 18th century, seafarers and shipowners in neighbouring Denmark-Norway had to make compulsory contributions to a ransom insurance. The individual premiums were based on the seamen's rank and income.

Hamburg Slave Fund

The

Free City of Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

's slave fund was created in 1624 by the Hamburg Admiralty, Hamburg's former harbour authority. The scheme was financed by all seamen embarking in Hamburg who, depending on their rank, had to pay a certain amount of their wages into the scheme. The assets of the Hamburg slave fund were supplemented by regular collections in the city's churches and also relied on private donations. The idea for the Hamburg slave fund was based on an insurance scheme of the same kind set up in Hamburg two years prior, but only for naval officers. Since the premiums were unaffordable for lower-rank crewmen, the general slave fund soon followed with premiums relative to rank and income, which constituted an early form of social insurance. Between 1719 and 1747 alone, the fund paid 1.8 million "Mark Banco" for the release of a total of 633 seamen, with one Mark Banco being defined as of silver. This translates into an average price of {{convert, 867.3, oz, kg silver per enslaved Hamburg seaman.

Lübeck Slave Fund

The

Lübeck Lübeck (; Low German also ), officially the Hanseatic City of Lübeck (german: Hansestadt Lübeck), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 217,000 inhabitants, Lübeck is the second-largest city on the German Baltic coast and in the stat ...

slave fund was established by the city council in 1627. It began operations on May 8, 1629, and existed until the mid 19th century. With the decline of Lübeck's direct shipping connections to the Mediterranean sea, the city's slave fund was highly liquid from the 18th century onwards.''Rezension Graßmann :'
PDF (p.455)
/ref> The last ransom payment was made in 1805, while its remaining assets afterwards were used to pay the

Sound Dues The Sound Dues (or Sound Tolls; da, Øresundstolden) were a toll on the use of the Øresund, or "Sound" strait separating the modern day borders of Denmark and Sweden. The tolls constituted up to two thirds of Denmark's state income in the 16th a ...

(1857) and to fund the city's customs authority. Lübeck's slave fund was finally dissolved on July 24, 1861, when the city became part of the

German Customs Union The (), or German Customs Union, was a coalition of German states formed to manage tariffs and economic policies within their territories. Organized by the 1833 treaties, it formally started on 1 January 1834. However, its foundations had b ...

References

Members of the Hanseatic League Maritime culture Admiralty law Economic history Hanseatic League Barbary slave trade 1624 Barbary pirates Marine insurance Piracy in the Mediterranean Ransom History of insurance Travel insurance Economic history of Germany

Hamburg Slave Fund

Lübeck Slave Fund

See also

References