There are, by way of example, references to
bottomry and respondentia, concepts which had been out of use for the best part of two centuries.
A fact intensive and thorough study of a slightly more contemporary application of
bottomry can be found in George Steckley,
Bottomry Bonds in Seventeenth Century Admiralty Court, 45 AM.
(By usury, I mean simply lending money at interest, whatever the rate.) The usury of Roman senators was not always as benign as Cato's investments in
bottomry. The Roman Republic was a giant protection racket.
Bottomry, according to Rupp's Insurance & Risk Management Glossary, provided that any ship not returning to port be absolved of any debt on the ship itself or on its cargo.
It is similar to the practice of
bottomry, which dates at least to classical Greek and Roman times.
policies of insurance." (85) Justice Story further held that a
bottomry instrument, similar to an insurance policy in that they both are executed on land and "intrinsically respect maritime risks, injuries and losses," (86) was a maritime contract, and thus part of the admiralty jurisdiction.
(6.) Such a "
bottomry" or "respondentia" loan was first used by the Empress and quickly became common in U.S.-China trade.