Maritime Loans

Maritime loans are attested in the Roman world as early as the second century BC.1²⁷ The loan (pecunia traiecticia) was made by private investors or professional bankers - acting as middlemen - to a shipper or group of shippers in a partnership and had to be repaid only if and when ship and cargo reached the agreed destination.

Ship and cargo were considered securities for the loan, whose duration was limited in time (for example, 200 days in the case of one Callimachus, for a trip from Beirut to Brindisi).¹²⁸size=2 face=Arial> In case of shipwreck, attack by pirates, or acts of God, the creditor would bear the loss. On the other hand, if the voyage was successful, the creditor was entitled to collect interest at a much higher rate than the 12 per cent annually which the law permitted for regular loans. Many points remain problematic, and unfortunately neither the nine excerpts in the Digest (D. 22.2, from Servius Sulpicius Rufus to Ulpian) nor the four Diocletianic constitutions from the Code (C. 4.33) provide more than hints. It is not clear, for instance, on what ground the legal limit on the rate of interest could be exceeded. We know of no statute, senatorial decree, plebiscite, or edict abrogating it, although no fewer than four laws on usury were proposed or passed between 217 and 192 BC.1²⁹ The jurists and the drafters of imperial constitutions insist on the notion of periculum creditoris (moneylender’s risk), an allocation of risk that possibly reveals a favourable bias towards shippers, who had to show only good faith.¹³⁰ Maritime loans sound like a necessary evil akin to both speculation and insurance against disasters.

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Source: Johnson David (ed). The Cambridge companion to Roman Law. Cambridge University Press,2015. — 554 p.. 2015

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