ฺB2 CREATION OF THE COMMON POOL
In the early days of marine insurance, the various merchants who were having goods carried on a ship would agree, prior to a voyage, to make contributions to those who suffered a loss during the voyage, after the loss had taken place.
This certainly removed the risk of a total loss from any one merchant, as each one knew that his loss would be shared.
What it did not do was to give the merchant any idea of what his loss would be; he only knew this after a voyage, as he had agreed to share in any losses which had taken place and the exact amount of these could only be determined after the event.
If there had been no losses he would have nothing to pay.