$4,004,557.39 8,741,323.86 27.20 8,484,593.73 28.10 3,569,905.98 26.63 4,500.850.50 27.42 6,861,790.25 28.77 9,403,134.28 31.85 11,791,369.66 30.33 13,124,292.14 31.07 13,874,810.99 82.24 14,924,366.16 83.14 15,128,290.66 35.51 10,879,392.00 26.65 $115,288,677.60 30.62

From this table it appears that the average expenses of American Companies is not less than 30 per cent. of the premiums received. This figure, however, includes taxes on capital, which in most of the states are paid by the companies. The expenses of companies in England average about 31 per cent.; those of France about the same, while those of Germany average about thirty per cent. If, therefore, we assume thirty per cent., in round numbers, as the average expense of conducting the business, we shall not be far from the absolute figure. Com

Thus far attention has been directed to the profits of underwriting and only inferentially to the adjustment of rates to hazards. The comparison of losses and expenses with premiums will go far towards enabling the practical underwriter to form a correct judgment, in view of past rates and experience, on individual risks; but to the political economist it is of first importance to know the absolute relation between losses and amount of property insured, the actual amount of risks assumed to each dollar of loss, and the average rate of premium on risks written, as affording some safe criterion of judgment as to the aspect of the business as a whole. With this view the following table has been prepared, embracing twelve years, from 1860 to 1871 inclusive:

the destruction of property in this country by fire. When it is considered that every loss of property by fire, whether insured or not, is a loss to the common wealth of the country, the import of these figures will be more fully appreciated. So great, indeed, has become the destruction of property by fire, that it has been doubted even by wise and intelligent persons whether, in a general or national point of view, the benefits resulting from insurance are not more than counterbalanced by the mischief it occasions. The objections in that point of view which have been urged are, carelessness and inattention which security by insurance naturally creates, and the temptation to arson engendered by it. But though it must be admitted that this species of insurance has been oftentimes the cause of fires, the benefits really outweigh the mischiefs ascribed to it, and it would at this day be difficult to conceive how the vast movements of trade and manufacture could be carried on without the protection of fire insurance. The immense accumulations of merchandise demand it, and notwithstanding the serious objections stated, it is essential to credit and the great industrial interests of the country. The general practice marks the civilization of the age in which we live, and has now become indispensible to the interests of trade and progress.

With all the development made in this important branch of political economy there yet remains much to be done before the business of fire insurance will be reduced to anything like the exactness its importance demands. Many reforms must be introduced, systematic statistics on fire insurance must be obtained and classified so as to afford a scientific basis on which the business should be conducted. The evils of over insurance, so productive of incendiarism; loose underwriting; hasty adjustment and payment of losses, as an encouragement to criminal carelessness or positive fraud, with numerous irregularities that have insidiously crept in upon the business, must be corrected before it can claim the high rank to which it is entitled.

There is a great law of average governing the business, certain and universal as the law of gravitation, though it is as yet imperfectly understood. Its principles are even now sufficiently well known to afford a safe

guide for the practical administration of the business, and with a wise caution on the art of the public there is little danger that a business like that of fire insurance, commanding as it does its full share of skill, talent, integrity, and honor, will be wantonly thrown into the hands of men or corporations devoid of all these qualities. It is a matter of public concern that these great interests, so intimately interwoven with all the industrial pursuits of the country, should be so conducted as to lessen one of the burdens that now presses so heavily upon them. Such should be the aim of those to whom these interests are entrusted, to the end that undoubted indemnity may be secured to the insured and profit to the capital invested.

MARINE Insurance is of a much older date than fire, and is supposed to have existed under the early Roman Emperous.

The Lombards from Italy introduced marine underwriting into England about the end of the 14th century. The first organized Company in New York was the New York Insurance Company in 1796, with a capital of $500,000. The business has increased under Stock and Mutual Companies until the total assets in 1860 were $21,867,198, and in 1871 $25,874,146. Total losses for same time were $138,658,961.

The "United States Lloyds," of New York, is composed of 100 individual underwriters, who have each paid into the common fund or capital $1,000, and each of whom is personally liable for at least an hundredth part of each and every risk taken by the attorneys of the association.

The Fire and Marine Companies of Massachusetts in 1868 insured $104,654,966 received $2,458,256 premiums, and sustained losses to the amount of $1.709,872. Many of the fire companies assume also Inland risks on our Western rivers and lakes, and there are a large number of companies scattered along the great rivers of the west devoted exclusively to this class of business. It is, however, impossible to obtain information sufficiently accurate to warrant any general classification.

The business of marine insurance has made rapid progress within the last fifty years under the mutual plan, which seems to be the only system adapted to its successful prosecution in this country.