The Industrial Revolution

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1027928145

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-159926

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Cunningham, William http://d-nb.info/gnd/128907487

Title:: The Industrial Revolution

Place of publication:: Cambridge

Publisher:: The University Press

Year of publication:: 1922

Scope:: xxii S., S. 404-886

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

MARINE INSURANCE regard to the business which was done by the members. A.D. 1689 In 1779, they drew up a general form of policy which jg TH still adhered to, and which has been taken as the model for marine insurance business all over the world’, It is curious to notice that they regarded the business of life- insurance? with much suspicion, as it seemed to be merely speculative® and lent itself to all sorts of nefarious practices. At a meeting of the subscribers, in March 1774, a resolution was passed of which the preamble states that “ shameful Practices have been introduced of late years into the business who of Underwriting, such as making Speculative Insurances on ro = the Lives of Persons and of Government securities.” It 237s In continues that “in the first instance it is endangering the Lives of the Persons so Insured, from the idea of being selected by Society for that inhuman purpose, which is being virtually an accessory in a species of slow murder.” The subscribers were therefore to refuse to undertake such business and to show “a proper resentment” against any broker who attempted to introduce it’. Tt thus came about that the underwriters, who had been left outside when the two great Companies were formed in 1720, had practically formed themselves into a body re- sembling a regulated Company. The forms under which business was done were now definitely established ; but the immense increase in the risks of loss which British shipping ran, during the great wars®, rendered it necessary for all 1 Martin, Lloyd's, 157. 2 Martin, 117, quoting London Chronicle for 1768, also pamphlet entitled Every Man His Own Broker. See also the Act regulating Life Insurance, 14 Geo. [II. c. 48. 8 The valuation of Life Annuities had been already put on & geientific basis by De Witt (whose treatise has been reprinted by Mr Hendriks in his excellent monograph, Contributions to the History of Insurance, 40), and also by Halley, Phil. Trams. XVII. 596, but they atiracted little attention among practical men. Many actuarial questions are also discussed by Weyman Lee, An Essay to ascertain the value of leases and annuities for years and lives, and to estimate the chances of the duration of lives (1738). The Society for Equitable Assurances wag the first Company founded on a scientific basis; this was established in 1762, but the promoters failed fo procure a charter. E. J. Farren, Historical Essay on the Rise and Early Progress of the doctrine of Life Contingencies (1844), p. 94. The Amicable Society, which was incorporated in 1706, was originally a sort of Tontine. Ib. p. 35. 4 Martin, Lloyd's, 157. 5 Compare Debates on Miscarriages of the Navy (1708), Parl. Hist. vi. 618: 4.09

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: The Industrial Revolution

Monograph

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation