L’assicurazione statale dei rischi di navigazione durante la Grande guerra attraverso gli atti dell’Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni

This article illustrates the initiatives taken by the Italian government, at the outbreak of the Great War, to support shipping companies with a state-sponsored marine insurance scheme, as private market insurers were not able to provide adequate cover for war-related risks. It also captures the evolution of the relevant legal framework during the First world war and the main operational elements implemented by the Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni (INA) to manage the scheme. It offers some examples of claims submitted by the shipowners, due to war causes and descriptions of solutions chosen by other countries to cope with insufficient insurance coverage for their respective merchant navies (U.S.A., France, UK, Germany). The analysis is mostly based on original documents from the INA historical archive (Board of Directors meetings minutes, financial reporting, letters).