This book examines the enormous riskiness of transatlantic trade in 18th century Spain and argues that many of the long-condemned commercial practices were vital accommodations to pervasive risk and uncertainty.

The paper deals with maritime risk, which we consider important, no doubt, for ship-owners acting in volatile markets. Traditionally, risk is measured by "standard deviation". Other risk measures like "excess kurtosis", "excess skewness", "long-term dependence" and the "catastrophe propensity"...