Fabricating the market: The promotion of life assurance in the long nineteenth-century

McFall, Liz and Dodsworth, Francis (2009). Fabricating the market: The promotion of life assurance in the long nineteenth-century. Journal of Historical Sociology, 22(1) pp. 30–54.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6443.2009.01341.x

Abstract

The market for life assurance did not emerge "naturally" from a particular problem of the allocation of resources, it had to be made. Life insurance had to appear desirable and reliable. This involved the circulation of a variety of advertising media, one aspect of which was the fabrication of grand offices as headquarters for life assurance companies. These buildings and their widely-circulated images were part of a process of making life assurance appear prudent and proper, but more importantly secure. Through this fabrication of the liberal market, the City of London was transformed into a centre of commerce and finance.