Editing Property insurance (section)

==History==
{{see also|History of insurance}}
[[File:Insurance contract.jpg|thumb|right|An 18th-century fire insurance contract]]
Property insurance can be traced to the [[Great Fire of London]], which in 1666 devoured more than 13,000 houses. The devastating effects of the fire converted the development of insurance "from a matter of convenience into one of urgency, a change of opinion reflected in [[Christopher Wren|Sir Christopher Wren]]'s inclusion of a site for 'the Insurance Office' in his new plan for London in 1667".<ref>Dickson (1960): 4</ref> A number of attempted fire insurance schemes came to nothing, but in 1681, [[Economics|economist]] [[Nicholas Barbon]] and eleven associates established the first fire insurance company, the "Insurance Office for Houses", at the back of the [[Royal Exchange, London|Royal Exchange]] to insure brick and frame homes. Initially, 5,000 homes were insured by Barbon's Insurance Office.<ref>Dickson (1960): 7</ref>

In the wake of this first successful venture, many similar companies were founded in the following decades. Initially, each company employed its own [[fire department]] to prevent and minimize the damage from conflagrations on properties insured by them. They also began to issue '[[fire insurance mark]]s' to their customers; these would be displayed prominently above the main door to the property in order to aid positive identification. One such notable company was the [[Hand in Hand Fire & Life Insurance Society]], founded in 1696 at Tom's Coffee House in [[St Martin's Lane]] in [[London]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Hand in Hand Fire & Life Insurance Society|url=http://www.aviva.com/about-us/heritage/companies/hand-in-hand-fire-and-life/|website=Aviva|access-date=2009-06-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101204135549/http://www.aviva.com/about-us/heritage/companies/hand-in-hand-fire-and-life/|archive-date=2010-12-04|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The first property insurance company still extant was founded in 1710 as the Sun Fire Office and is now, through many mergers and acquisitions, the [[RSA Insurance Group]].<ref>{{cite web|title=RSA Insurance Group History|url=http://www.rsagroup.com/rsa/pages/aboutus/history|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110902071509/http://www.rsagroup.com/rsa/pages/aboutus/history|archive-date=2011-09-02}}</ref>

In [[Colonial America]], [[Benjamin Franklin]] helped to popularize and make standard the practice of insurance, particularly Property insurance to spread the risk of loss from fire, in the form of [[Perpetual Insurance|perpetual insurance]]. In 1752, he founded the [[Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire]]. Franklin's company refused to insure certain buildings, such as wooden houses, where the risk of fire was too great.