is characteristic enough of a mercantile people. Prior to the
foundation of such an institution, it is obvious that there must have
been some important statistical information connected with commercial
losses.
This was submitted to Mr. Finlaison; and his opinion being that the
plan contained the strongest element of success, the society commenced
business; and now any person supplying a number of traders with goods
may secure himself from loss, 90 per cent. of which is paid to the
assured party, the remaining 10 per cent. being placed as a reserve
fund. There is also an annual charge for management, out of which the
interest on the shareholders’ capital of 50,000_l._ is paid. There
are many collateral advantages in connexion with the company, not
the least of which is information concerning the trading community,
so that a subscriber may ascertain the character and credit in the
money-market of a new customer. All legal expenses are borne by the
management commission fund; and there is something very amusing in the
indifference with which any person insured in this society must attend
a meeting of creditors; for while others look with bent brows and
anxious faces, he may remain utterly careless about its proceedings. It
is easy to suppose that this feeling may raise a spirit of recklessness
in some; but the promoters have wisely interested this class, if such
there be, by the deduction of the 10 per cent. on all losses, and by
other wise arrangements which stimulate the careful and deter the
careless. One half the surplus of the year’s premium will be applied
to the reduction of the next payment of those whose losses have not
equalled their annual premium; and as a similar society has been in
operation in France for the last five years, which has met with signal
success, there appears every reason to believe that this society will
prosper. Within the first nine months, insurances have been effected
of more than 3,000,000_l._ The theory of chances is as applicable to
commercial transactions as it is to life. The close observer will not
have failed to notice that the periodical epidemic--whatever form it
may have assumed--has its representative in the commercial crisis.
Every six or seven years, mercantile epidemics--analogous to the
cholera, the influenza, or the typhus of an unhealthy season--which
seem to defy all calculation and to level the lofty as well as the low,
revolutionise our money system. So fixed have they become in their
appearance and re-appearance, that they have ceased to be exceptional;
and there is now plenty of information on which to base some estimate
of the annual losses of special classes from bad debts.