Principles and Developments of General Average: Statutory and Contractual Loss Allowances from the Lex Rhodia to the Early Modern Mediterranean

In the Tractatus de Avariis (1617), Quintin Weytsen begins his explanation with a definition that was destined to become the classic one: ‘Average is the common contribution of the things found in the ship in order to make good the damage voluntarily inflicted upon items, whether belonging to merchants or the ship, to the end that lives, ship, and the remaining goods should escape unscathed’. Average is the contribution that should compensate the damage sponte illatum (voluntarily inflicted). The problem is that while ‘voluntary’ is a straightforward idea in the abstract, it is much more complicated to establish concretely in a situation at sea.