Esq.Nicholas Magens orNicolaus Paul Magens (1697 or 1704–1764) was anattorney, a merchant specializing in Spain andits colonies in the Americas, and an expert on shipinsurance,general average andbottomry who gained a great reputation in commercial matters.^[1][2]

Nicolaus was bornNeuendorf bei Elmshorn in theDuchy of Holstein.^[3] Around 1725 he lived inCadiz and traded withVeracruz where silver fromNew Spain could be bought.^[4][5] Already in 1737 he was living in London and became a citizen when he married Elizabeth Dörrien and byroyal assent; his younger brother Wilhelm settled in Cadiz. In 1741 he became one of the directors of theRoyal Exchange Assurance Corporation and was given the responsibility for the complaint negotiations by theHamburg Senate. In 1759 he seems to have been appointed by theBank of England as director.^[4] After theAnglo-Prussian Convention, he andGeorge Amyand were involved in twobills of exchange, to support theDuke of Brunswick.^[6] They collaborated withHenry Fox, 1st Baron Holland,Paymaster of the Forces and Adrian andThomas Hope.^[7] In 1763 he moved toBrightlingsea, where he had bought two manors, which were inherited by his nephewMagens Dorrien Magens.^[4]

His huge monument was sculpted byNicholas Read.^[8]

• The Universal Merchant, Containing the Rationale of Commerce, in Theory and Practice; an Enquiry into the Nature and Genius of Banks, their Power, Use, Influence, and Efficacy; the Establishment and operative Transactions of the Banks of London and Amsterdam, their Capacity and ..., published in 1753, which was used byAdam Smith inThe wealth of nations in regard to the estimates of the precious metals imported into Europe.^[9] William Horsley seems to have been his editor or assistance in translating.^[10]
• An Essay on Insurances: Explaining the Nature of the Various Kinds of Insurance Practiced by the Different Commercial States of Europe, and Shewing Their Consistency Or Inconsistency with Equity and the Public Good. Illustrated by Real and Extraordinary Cases, Stated at Large, with Observations Thereon, Tending to Settle Divers Doubtful Points in Making Up Accounts of Losses and Averages. To which are Annexed, Some Brief Hints to Merchants and Insurers Concerning the Risks to which Navigation is Exposed in Time of War; the King of Prussia's Exposition in Relation to the Capture and Detention of the Ships of His Subjects by the English During the Late War; the Answer from England to It; Some Remarkable Pieces Concerning the Stopping of Ships in Former Wars; and a Famous Insurance Cause Pleaded Before the House of Lords, and Some Mercantile Observations Thereon, printed in 1755, an important work on ship insurances, fundamental for the English insurance industry in those days, with the explicit intention of providing guidance to judges and lawmakers. The first volume described general features of insurance policies and a description of 36 “remarkable cases” illustrating key points. Many of these cases had been decided in London, but others were settled at Hamburg, Leghorn, Cadiz, and Lisbon, some in courts and some by arbitration. The second volume contained a translation into English of all the foreign insurance ordinances.^[11]

• Geoffrey Clark, Insurance as an Instrument of War in the 18th Century, "The Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance", vol. 29, no. 2 (apr. 2004), pp. 247–257.[1]
• Robert Lee (ed.), Commerce and culture. Nineteenth-Century Business Elites, London and New York, Routledge, 2016, pp. 240–248.
• Fondazione Mansutti, Quaderni di sicurtà. Documents of the history of insurance, edited by M. Bonomelli, bibliographic cards C. Baptist, critical notes by F. Mansutti, Milan, Electa, 2011, p. 208.

• 1764 deaths
• 18th-century German businesspeople
• 18th-century merchants
• History of insurance
• History of finance
• History of banking
• Classical economists
• 18th-century German economists
• Age of Enlightenment
• British male non-fiction writers
• People from the Duchy of Holstein
• Merchants from the Holy Roman Empire
• German expatriates in Spain
• Expatriates from the Holy Roman Empire
• Expatriates in the Kingdom of Great Britain

• Wikipedia articles incorporating a citation from the ODNB
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from April 2022
• Year of birth uncertain