Joseph Lazarus Morpurgo
Joseph Lazarus Morpurgo (* 1759 in Gorizia ; † August 11 or August 12, 1835 in Trieste ; Italian Giuseppe Lazzaro Morpurgo ) was an Austro-Italian businessman, writer and insurance specialist . In 1831 he initiated the establishment of the Assicurazioni Generali in Trieste .
Life
Morpurgo's family comes from Marburg in Lower Styria (today Slovenia), from which the name is derived. Joseph's father Abraham ran a silk spinning mill in Gorizia , and Joseph lost his mother at the age of six. He spent his youth in Trieste and with relatives in Verona . Returned to Gorizia around 1780, he worked for his father and for the maritime banker Leon Vivante, whose daughter he married. Later working as a businessman in Trieste, he studied insurance law with the lawyer Jakob Gabbiati, which is particularly important in port cities for shipping .
After Gabbiati's death, he worked for various maritime and inland transport insurance companies and founded a maritime insurance company in 1801, which he had to give up in 1809 due to the events of the war. The approval to set up an orphans 'and widows' insurance was refused by the Gubernium in 1805 . Later, however, Morpurgo succeeded in introducing fire , hail and life insurance in Trieste , thus paving the way for the whole of Austria-Hungary .
Although initially an admirer of Napoleon , as administrator of an insolvent banking house, he saved the bankrupt's estate from the claims of the new French governor. For this he was awarded by Emperor Franz I in 1816 .
When the economy slowly recovered after the Napoleonic Wars , this favored the insurance industry. After the restoration, Morpurgo was able to reactivate the Sea Assurance Society. In November 1822 he set up the limited partnership Azienda Assicuratrice based on the model of Anglo-French fire insurance, which also operated other branches of insurance and soon received the imperial sanction. In 1832 he founded the Assicurazioni Generali Austro-Italiche with the lawyer Giambatista Rosmini, which was able to settle a loss of several million guilders in the first few years .
In 1820 Morpurgo wrote a highly regarded compilation of all kinds of insurance and was appointed arbitrator in over 100 lawsuits in maritime businesses.
In addition to these activities, he worked for the Jewish community of Trieste, of which he was President several times. He was able to call Abraham Vita de Cologna to Trieste for the rabbinate and had a prayer book drawn up for the German rite. As a member of the board of directors of the municipal poor institution , he succeeded in getting Jews to be supported by it.
Since his studies in Verona, he has repeatedly dealt with Hebrew poetry, wrote various odes, sonnets and elegies and translated English essays .
Quote
About the establishment of the Azienda Assicuratrice , Morpurgo said that he was encouraged by "the knowledge of the prosperity of English and French fire insurance, which is always linked to public prosperity ". The requested limited partnership for damage insurance is "desirable for those interested and at the same time useful for the state ..."
Literature and web links
- E. Maserati: Morpurgo Giuseppe Lazzaro. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 6, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1975, ISBN 3-7001-0128-7 , p. 380.
- Peter Koch: Pioneers of the Insurance Thought - 300 Years of Insurance History in Life Pictures 1550-1850 , pp.255-260, Springer-Verlag 1968
- Joseph Lazarus Morpurgo 1759 - 1835 (2 pages excerpt from the above work), Springer 1968
- Giuseppe Lazzaro Morpurgo , biography from "Israelitische Annalen" p.105-106, Frankfurt 1840
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Morpurgo, Joseph Lazarus |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Morpurgo, Giuseppe Lazzaro |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austro-Italian businessman, man of letters and specialist in transport insurance |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1759 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Gorizia |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 11, 1835 or August 12, 1835 |
| Place of death | Trieste |