A type of maritime loan where a ship or its cargo is pledged as security; if the ship is lost, the lender loses the money.
From Middle Dutch bodemrij (literally 'bottom-journey'), referring to loans on the ship's bottom or hull, adopted into English maritime law in the medieval period.
Bottomry represents one of history's boldest financial innovations—it allowed poor captains to finance voyages that would be otherwise impossible, effectively inventing maritime risk-based lending centuries before modern banking.
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