diff options
| author | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-04-23 10:21:17 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org> | 2025-04-23 10:21:17 -0700 |
| commit | cce44d54033e9b76b20e0c61dcdb1f801361a4ea (patch) | |
| tree | 4bb83fe7692eb89dbfd8d4c690bdfbfd114f92d7 /75944-h | |
Diffstat (limited to '75944-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 75944-h/75944-h.htm | 2951 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 75944-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 0 -> 252462 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 75944-h/images/fig1.jpg | bin | 0 -> 247529 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 75944-h/images/fig2.jpg | bin | 0 -> 243114 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 75944-h/images/fig2big.jpg | bin | 0 -> 256406 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 75944-h/images/fig3.jpg | bin | 0 -> 257760 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 75944-h/images/fig3big.jpg | bin | 0 -> 254815 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 75944-h/images/fig4.jpg | bin | 0 -> 247495 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 75944-h/images/fig4big.jpg | bin | 0 -> 255406 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 75944-h/images/fig5.jpg | bin | 0 -> 251922 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 75944-h/images/fig5big.jpg | bin | 0 -> 256460 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 75944-h/images/fig6.jpg | bin | 0 -> 254951 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 75944-h/images/fig6big.jpg | bin | 0 -> 255638 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 75944-h/images/fig7.jpg | bin | 0 -> 225379 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 75944-h/images/fig7big.jpg | bin | 0 -> 251182 bytes |
15 files changed, 2951 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/75944-h/75944-h.htm b/75944-h/75944-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..88bf9a2 --- /dev/null +++ b/75944-h/75944-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2951 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + The Royal Exchange | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; +} + + h1,h2 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +h1 {font-weight: normal; + font-size: 160%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + word-spacing: 0.3em; + } + +h2 {font-weight: normal; + font-size: 130%; + margin-top: 2em; + word-spacing: 0.3em; + } + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; +} + +.p2 {margin-top: 2em;} +.p4 {margin-top: 4em;} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.full {width: 95%; margin-left: 2.5%; margin-right: 2.5%;} + +hr.r5 {width: 5%; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 47.5%; margin-right: 47.5%;} + + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.tdl {text-align: left;} +.tdr {text-align: right;} +.tdc {text-align: center;} +.tdrb {text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: 0; +} /* page numbers */ + + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; + font-size: 90%; +} + + +.caption {font-size: 80%; + text-align: center; + word-spacing: 0.3em;} + + +.xxlarge {font-size: 220%;} +.up {font-size: 160%;} +.large {font-size: 120%;} +.less {font-size: 90%;} +.more {font-size: 80%;} +.med {font-size: 70%;} +.mid {font-size: 60%;} + +.c {text-align: center;} + +.sp {word-spacing: 0.3em;} + +.lsp {letter-spacing: 0.2em;} + +.pad {margin-left: 15%; + margin-right: 10%;} +.sp1 {word-spacing: 1em;} + +.ph2 {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; + font-size: 140%; + margin-top: 1em; + word-spacing: 0.3em; + letter-spacing: 0.2em;} + +.dropcap {float: left; width: auto; padding-right: 1px; font-size: 390%; line-height: 70%;} + + +.greentext { color: green;} + +.r {text-align: right; + margin-right: 2em;} + + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + + +/* Images */ + +img { + max-width: 100%; + height: auto; +} +img.w100 {width: 100%;} + + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + + + +/* Poetry */ +.poetry-container {display: flex; justify-content: center;} +.poetry-container {text-align: center;} +.poetry {text-align: left; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; font-size:90%;} +.poetry .stanza {margin: 1em auto;} +.poetry .verse {text-indent: -3em; padding-left: 3em;} + +/* Transcriber's notes */ +.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:small; + padding:0.5em; + margin-bottom:5em; + margin-top:3em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; + border: .3em double gray; + padding: 1em; +} +.poetry .indent0 {text-indent: -3em;} +.poetry .indent2 {text-indent: -2em;} + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75944 ***</div> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="cover"> +</div> + + +<h1>THE ROYAL EXCHANGE</h1> + +<div class="figcenter" id="fig1"> +<img src="images/fig1.jpg" alt="exchange"> +<p class="caption">THE ROYAL EXCHANGE, LONDON.</p> +</div> + + + +<p class="c sp p4 lsp"> +<span class="up">THE</span><br> +<span class="xxlarge">ROYAL EXCHANGE</span></p> + +<p class="pad sp large p2"> +A NOTE ON THE OCCASION OF<br> +<span class="sp1">THE BICENTENARY OF THE</span><br> +ROYAL EXCHANGE ASSURANCE +</p> + +<p class="c more p4"> +BY</p> + +<p class="c large"> +A. E. W. MASON</p> + +<p class="c large p4"> +ROYAL EXCHANGE<br> +LONDON</p> + +<p class="c"> +1920 +</p> + + + +<hr class="full x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p class="ph2">CONTENTS.</p> +</div> + +<hr class="r5"> + +<table> + +<tr> + <td class="tdc"><span class="large sp">PART I.—THE HOUSE.</span></td> + <td class="tdr"></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdc"><a href="#c1">CHAPTER I.</a></td> + <td class="tdr"></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl"></td> + <td class="tdr"><span class="med">PAGE</span></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Sir Thomas Gresham and the First Royal<br> +Exchange</span></td> + <td class="tdrb">11</td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdc"><a href="#c2">CHAPTER II.</a></td> + <td class="tdr"></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Great Fire and the Second Royal<br> +Exchange</span></td> + <td class="tdrb">26</td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdc"><a href="#c3">CHAPTER III.</a></td> + <td class="tdr"></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Third Royal Exchange</span></td> + <td class="tdr">43</td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdc">————</td> + <td class="tdr"></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdc"><span class="large sp">PART II.—THE BUSINESS.</span></td> + <td class="tdr"></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdc"><a href="#c4">CHAPTER IV.</a></td> + <td class="tdr"></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The South Sea Bubble and the Birth of the<br> +Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation</span></td> + <td class="tdrb">51</td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdc"><a href="#c5">CHAPTER V.</a></td> + <td class="tdr"></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">On Assurance</span></td> + <td class="tdr">67</td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdc"><a href="#c6">CHAPTER VI.</a></td> + <td class="tdr"></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Some Odds and Ends</span></td> + <td class="tdr">85</td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdc"><a href="#c7">CHAPTER VII.</a></td> + <td class="tdr"></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Corporation</span></td> + <td class="tdr">97</td></tr> + +</table> + + + + +<hr class="full x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p class="ph2">LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.</p> +</div> + +<hr class="r5"> + +<table> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Royal Exchange</span></td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#fig1"><i>Frontispiece.</i></a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl"></td> + <td class="tdr"><span class="mid">FACING<br> +PAGE</span></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The First Royal Exchange</span></td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#fig2">20</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Second Royal Exchange</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#fig3">34</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Interior of the Second Royal Exchange</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#fig4">41</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Destruction of the Second Royal<br> +Exchange by Fire, 1838</span></td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#fig5">43</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">South Sea Bubble Broadsheet, 1720</span></td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#fig6">52</a></td></tr> + +<tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Second Royal Exchange—Proof of<br> +First Heading on Fire Policies, 1721</span></td> + <td class="tdrb"><a href="#fig7">99</a></td></tr> + +</table> + + + +<hr class="full x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p class="c sp large" id="c1">PART I.</p> +</div> + +<p class="c sp up">THE HOUSE.</p> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER I.</h2> +</div> + +<p class="c sp less">SIR THOMAS GRESHAM AND THE<br> +FIRST ROYAL EXCHANGE.</p> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">O</span>N the afternoon of January 23rd, in +the year 1571, Queen Elizabeth went +from her Palace of Somerset House +to dine with Sir Thomas Gresham at his +fine mansion in Austin Friars. She went in +state with her Trumpeters and Halberdiers, +but the visit was no such great mark of +distinction as in these days it would be. +For one thing, Sir Thomas was a person +of much importance in the Realm. He +was a member of the Mercers’ Company +which was established as long ago as 1172; +he was the Royal Agent in the Low +Countries, and by other important services +had Her Majesty in his debt. There was +another reason not to be lost sight of +in any narrative which is concerned with +the City of London. The social barriers—which<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</span> +at a later date were to divide the +City from the Court for the best part +of a couple of centuries—had not yet been +erected. Wars and the art of soldiering +have been from time immemorial the great +origins of social divisions, and these were +times of peace. Seventeen years had still +to come before the Armada was to sail out +of Corunna harbour. Moreover, there was +no West End. Great nobles lived cheek by +jowl with the great merchants, and the +latter held their own in social esteem much +as they have done during the last fifty years.</p> + +<p>The Queen was on her way to open Sir +Thomas Gresham’s new Burse, and she sat +at dinner with Sir Thomas Gresham upon +her right hand, and upon her left the French +Ambassador, Monsieur La Motte Fénélon, +to whom we are indebted for an account of +his share in that great woman’s conversation. +We have no record, worse luck, of +what passed between her and Sir Thomas +Gresham. But no doubt she whispered to +him her intention to dignify his Exchange +with the epithet of “Royal,” and no doubt +he took the occasion to embroider upon +certain passages from a letter which he had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</span> +had the honour to write to her from Bruges: +“The Stillyard hath been the chiefest +point in the undoing of this your Realm +and the Merchants of the same.”</p> + +<p>We are not to picture Sir Thomas as +unduly elated; the building was, to be +sure, a great thing in the history of London +and a definite help to the commerce of +England. It had been mooted before. +His father, Sir Richard Gresham, Master +of the Mercers’ Company and Lord +Mayor of London, for many years had +advocated the erection of an Exchange +in London and to him credit for the +original conception must be given. +Henry the Eighth in the twenty-sixth year +of his reign sent his letters to the City for +the making of a new Burse at Leadenhall, +but by a show of hands the City had refused +it, preferring that the merchants should +still meet to conduct their business on the +cobble stones of Lombard Street. Now, +however, the Exchange was a fact. It +stood facing Cornhill with the great gilt +Grasshopper of Sir Thomas Gresham’s crest +perched on the top of its tall tower. But +the Exchange was not the end of Sir Thomas<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</span> +Gresham’s policy—it was no more than the +half-way house on the road of his high +ambitions. It was to be one of the means +by which Englishmen were to become masters +in their own City and the pernicious +rule of the Lombardy men, and above all +of the Stillyard was to be destroyed.</p> + +<p>The Stillyard was, to the modern understanding, +one of the strangest institutions +which the world has ever seen. It took its +origin from the debts of the early English +kings and the money with which the German +traders from the Baltic, the Easterlings as +they were called, were able to provide them. +These Easterlings or Emperor’s men—the +latter designation in time came to supersede +the earlier—were the representatives in +England of the famous Hanseatic League, +and for the greater part of the five centuries +which followed upon the reign of Edward +the Confessor, they used England’s inability +to finance her wars on the Continent, +and her Crusades in the East, to fix a +stranglehold upon British Commerce. They +were established in rights and privileges +which no English shared with them; they +paid fixed taxes; they held a monopoly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</span> +of the export of the most valuable raw +materials, such as wool, and of the import +of the most valuable finished products. +The early history of this country gives +many a significant little proof of the great +power which they held. They were responsible +for the upkeep of Bishopsgate, +except the hinges, for which the Bishop of +London was responsible, and on account +of this obligation they were relieved from +the tax called “Murage,” which was devoted +to the upkeep of the City walls. In +1303, Edward the First, when replying to a +Petition, presented by the Mayor, Aldermen +and Commoners of the City of London, +asking that the Lombards might be forbidden +from dwelling in the City, acting +as brokers, or buying and selling by retail, +stated, that if the Citizens would put the +City under good government, no foreigner +should be allowed so to dwell or act in the +City or its Liberties, save and except the +merchants of the Hanseatic towns. They +were exempted, moreover, from the particular +service of keeping watch against the +Pirates, who from the 13th to the 16th +Centuries infested the Channel and the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</span> +mouth of the Thames. This exemption is all +the more remarkable since the Alemanes or +Alemans—another of their many designations—having +practically the monopoly of +the sea-borne commerce, were the first to +benefit by that vigilance. How dangerous +these Pirates were, can be easily understood +from the fact that when Henry the Fourth +crossed the Thames from Queenborough in +Sheppey to Leigh in Essex, in order to escape +a pestilence which was raging in London, +one of his ships, containing his baggage and +some of his retinue, fell into the hands of +Pirates, while the King narrowly escaped +capture himself. The power of the Stillyard +was thus a formidable thing, and its +governors had surrounded it by such precautions +and safeguards as made it doubly +difficult to destroy. The Members of the +Steelyard or Stillyard—spelling was never +an exact science until a very recent date—lived, +for instance, upon the Monastic plan. +No guild or corporation or trades union +which ever existed set so strict a limit to the +number of its members. Its great yards +and buildings stood upon the bank of the +Thames where to-day the arches of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</span> +South Eastern Railway carry the lines into +Cannon Street Station. They were known +first of all as the “Stapelhof,” the Stapel +House; this name was contracted into +“Staelhof”; the Staelhof in its turn +became anglicised into “Stilliards,” and +then, by a change which had nothing to do +with the meaning of the institution, was +transmuted in common parlance into “the +Steelyard.” The Steelyard, which had +subsidiary houses at Boston and Lynn, was +the great storage building of England. The +raw products for exportation, of which tin, +hides and wool were the chief, were +assembled there. Thither, too, came the +imports from abroad—wheat, rye, grain, +cables, wax, steel, linen, cloth and tar in particular. +The walls were fortified against +attack—a very necessary precaution considering +the ill-feeling which the Yard aroused +amongst British Londoners. No member of +the Stillyard was allowed to marry or even +to visit any person of the other sex. At a +fixed hour in the evening, all had to be at +home, and the gates were rigidly closed; +and at a fixed hour in the morning the +gates were opened again. All meals were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</span> +taken in common, and the members submitted +themselves to a Government which +consisted of a Master, two assessors and +nine common councilmen. This committee +held office for a year, the election taking +place upon New Year’s Eve, and the new +Master, with his council, solemnly took oath +upon the following day to uphold all the +rights and privileges entrusted to his vigilance. +It can be easily imagined, therefore, +what power a body of this kind possessed, +a body without home life or any interests +except its commerce, having besides not +only the crown of England in its fee, but the +monopoly of its sea-borne commerce, and +the monopoly of its great product, wool—for +it was said in the 14th Century that +England with its wool kept the whole +world warm—and the stupendous efforts +required to destroy it. Yet to destroy it, +was again not all of Sir Thomas Gresham’s +policy. He meant, while destroying it, to +graft upon English commerce the business +methods by which the Hanseatic League +had achieved its pre-eminence. Amongst +these methods, by the way, was insurance.</p> + +<p>We are to imagine, then, Sir Thomas +Gresham conversing with his great guest<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</span> +upon these grave matters, and she in time +turning to her companion upon her left. +La Motte Fénélon was an old friend of hers, +and it is clear that they did some pretty +sparring over the vexed question whether +she should or should not marry the Duc +D’Anjou. It seems that Elizabeth was in +great good humour that day. She had not +visited the City for two years, and was +received with so loving a welcome that +probably nothing like to it was afterwards +seen until the Jubilee processions of +Queen Victoria. But “Gloriana” was not +the woman to lose her head, and to hold out +hopes that she would marry a foreign prince +was one of her favourite tricks with foreign +ambassadors. She told Monsieur La Motte +Fénélon that she was well aware that the +Duc D’Anjou had not the best of reputations, +but that she would, if she married him, +do her best to be a loving wife and the +mother of a fine boy. She broke off to ask +him how he thought she was looking—we +may be very sure she did not put this +question to the great Sir Thomas Gresham. +La Motte Fénélon replied that she was +divinely beautiful. He could really under<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</span> +the circumstances say no less. He does +not go quite so far in his account of this +dinner party to his own Government, but he +admits that since she was rising forty, as +the phrase goes, she was really surprising.</p> + +<p>We must take it that the dinner was a +success, for it was nearly seven o’clock in +the evening—a late hour for those days—when, +accompanied by a great escort of +torch bearers, she went on to the Exchange. +The building was constructed almost entirely +of foreign material. The alabaster +came from the Low Countries; the stone +from Flanders; even the little blocks of +hone stones which still to-day pave the +centre of the quadrangle came from Turkey. +The Master who superintended the work was +Flemish—one Henrik—and almost to a +man the builders were from overseas.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="fig2"> +<a href="images/fig2big.jpg"> +<img src="images/fig2.jpg" alt="first"> +</a> +<p class="caption">THE FIRST ROYAL EXCHANGE.<br> +<span class="greentext">(click image to enlarge)</span></p> +</div> + +<p>It is curious that an Englishman, who +was devoting his energies to the release of +British commerce from the grasp of the +foreigner, should have gone abroad for the +material and the workmen for what was to +be the monument of English commercial +independence. Is it possible that Sir +Thomas Gresham had just that touch of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</span>snobbery in small matters—so common a +trait of the English character, which professes +admiration for everything foreign so +long as English interests are not seriously +attacked?—the same sort of snobbery which +a few years ago filled a suburban drawing +room with cheap books and photographs +of the Rhine and Switzerland, and found +no place for any views of England. However +that may be, the first Royal Exchange +had little that was English in its +composition, even that gallery in which +Queen Elizabeth made her clear speech, +declaring that henceforth the building was +to be the Royal Exchange, must have an +outlandish name. It was called the +“Pawn,” and like the rest of the Exchange, +was lit up—brilliantly for those days—in +the Italian style with coloured glass cups full +of burning grease, and great wax torches +burning in sconces on the walls. The +Pawn was decorated with rich hangings +and carpets from the East, and the shops +glittered with glass and jewellery, silver +and gold.</p> + +<p>From the ceremony the Queen returned to +Somerset House through the lighted streets<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</span> +by way of Cheapside and Temple Bar—all +London was abroad, jostling in the narrow +ways, a torrent of splendid colour, ringing +cheers, and the orange splashes of torch +flames. The Queen could not but be +moved. “It does my heart good,” she +cried, “to see my subjects so loyal and +myself so well beloved.” The tears came +into her eyes, and she whispered to +La Motte Fénélon, who rode at her side, +“My people have only one regret—they +know me to be mortal and that I have no +child to reign over them after my death.” +La Motte Fénélon was touched, as no doubt +he was meant to be. Her sincerity was +apparent to him, and he had greater hopes +than ever that the Duc D’Anjou would +sit by her side on the Throne of England. +Very likely she <i>was</i> sincere, but she was too +subtle a woman and too wary a Queen not +to make use of her sincerity to fortify that +throne of hers which meant so much to +the prosperity of her people.</p> + +<p>Thus ended a great day in the history of +London, and seven years later Sir Thomas +Gresham had his way. The Queen, encouraged +by Sir William Cecil, afterwards<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</span> +Lord Burleigh, and Sir Thomas Gresham, +declared all the privileges of the Stillyard +merchants of whatever nature, null and +void for ever. The next year she struck +a harder blow. She forbade them to export +wool, thus depriving them of the most +profitable branch of their business. The +Stillyard merchants were unwise enough to +appeal to the Diet of the Hanseatic League +at Bruges. The Diet responded to the +appeal. It threatened England that, unless +the Stillyard was restored to its former +privileges and rights, the English Company +of Merchant Adventurers would be expelled +from every town in Germany in which it +had established a branch. The Diet, however, +did not know the Lady with whom it +had to deal. The answer came prompt and +sharp in a proclamation which not only +closed the Stillyard itself peremptorily, +but bade every German merchant leave the +Kingdom before the last day of February, +1597. This proclamation was carried out, +the German merchants left, the Stillyard +was handed over as a store house to +the Admiralty, and thus disappeared an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</span> +institution as pernicious to the trade of +England as the Kingdom has ever known.</p> + +<p>But these Germans had built their house +well and the great walls of the Yard were +still standing in 1863, when the South +Eastern Railway built Cannon Street +Station.</p> + +<p>As for the Royal Exchange itself, it +became at once the meeting place of +merchants and the promenade of men of +fashion. In the day-time grave people of +business paced those Turkish hone stones, +adjusted their disputes and engaged in +transactions with outlandish people from +all the then known countries in the world. +In the evening the butterflies of fashion +would flit from Paul’s Walk to the gaily +lighted shops of the Pawn, where all they +could want from lace, glass, strange curios, +to that queer new useful invention—the +common pin—was laid out to attract them. +“What artificial thing,” says an old writer, +“was there that could entertain the senses +or the phantasies of man that was not there +to be had? Such was the delight that +many gallants took in that magazine of +all curious varieties that they could almost<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</span> +have dwelt there, going from shop to shop +like bees from flower to flower if they +had but had the fountain of money that +could not have been drawn dry.” The +evening, however, was not apparently ended +in the Pawn. There was a certain routine +in the amusements of the people of fashion +as there is to-day. From the Pawn the +stream of gay people flowed to Bucklersbury, +where were the Indian shops with their +scents and perfumes, and the Italian Confectioners, +where they took their supper before +going home to bed. Thus for ninety years +the first Royal Exchange played its important +part in the life of London. In 1666 +the Great Fire swept it away.</p> +<hr class="full x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="c2">CHAPTER II.</h2> +</div> + +<p class="c sp less">THE GREAT FIRE AND THE SECOND<br> +ROYAL EXCHANGE.</p> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">P</span>OPULAR faith for a long time swayed +between two ultimate reasons for +the Great Fire. It was either a +visitation from God upon London for its +vices and its lack of religion, or it was +a dispensation of Providence to clear the +City altogether from the germs of the +Plague. But, as a fact, mediæval London +was neither more wicked nor more unhealthy +than any large city of those days. +More than one foreign Chronicler, indeed, +pays his tribute to the beauty of the City, +its gardens and clear springs, and to the +orderly character of its inhabitants; though, +to be sure, we must measure those eulogies +by the standards of the times. London, like +any other mediæval town, was especially +liable to fire; its streets were narrow to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</span> +begin with, and, to make things worse, +permissions were readily granted for the +extensions of the upper storeys upon pillars. +These extensions called “Hautpas,” were +no doubt conceded because they formed a +protection against the weather to passers-by +and the shops beneath. They were no +less warmly welcomed by the owner because +they increased the size of his house without +necessitating the purchase of additional +ground. London, indeed, was as crowded +then as it is to-day. The streets and +alleyways were thick with a jostle of +people from morning until late at night, +and decree after decree of the City +Fathers sought in vain to restrain the +invasion from the countryside. All this +press of people made carelessness more +common and the danger of fire more likely, +and when the King with his Court came to +the Tower of London, the demand upon the +City space became almost intolerable, for +there was never room within the Tower for +the retinue which he carried with him. +There was a permanent officer upon his +staff called the “Sergeant Harbourer,” +whose business it was to find lodgings for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</span> +the household servants and dependants of +the King.</p> + +<p>The houses were built of wood and roofed +with thatch. Glass was rare—probably +none was imported into England until the +reign of Henry the Third, and although a +hundred years afterwards, in the reign of +Edward the Third, glass was so far known +that a Guild of Verrers or Glaziers was +definitely established, most of the houses, +especially of the poorer class, were unprotected +by it. Let a fire once get hold of +one of these houses, in a dry season, it would +roar through the narrow streets as through +a funnel, driving burning fragments of wood +and cloth and paper through the unglazed +windows into the mansions on either side. +London was thus ripe for fires, but she was +chastised out of all measure. Both in the +first year of Stephen’s reign and in 1212, +fires ravaged the City. Indeed, in the latter +case, many more lives were lost than in the +Great Fire of 1666.</p> + +<p>A singular feature of all these fires is that +they took their origin in the neighbourhood +of London Bridge. Thus the great Fire +began early on a Sunday morning, the 2nd<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</span> +September, in the house of Farryner, the +King’s baker, in Pudding Lane. Pepys, +from a window of his house in Seething +Lane, noticed the blaze at about 3 o’clock +in the morning, but thought little of it and +returned to his bed. The summer, however, +had been hot; the houses were little better +than tinder and a high wind was blowing. +Appliances and regulations there were of a +kind, but of too primitive a kind to check +the progress of this fire. Each Ward, for +instance, was equipped with a hook to pull +down houses, two chains and two strong +cords, all in charge of the Beadle. Large +houses were compelled to keep one or two +ladders and, during the summer, a barrel +of water in the courtyard. Certain houses +too had stone partitioned walls, since, by +the Assize of Fitz-Ailwyne, special civic +privileges were given to those who built +in stone rather than in wood. But such +houses were few. For instance, if a stone +house stood at any boundary which you +wished to indicate, you had but to say “The +Stone House” and no one would mistake you. +The fire spread up Thames Street, drove +north and west along Gracechurch Street,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</span> +Lombard Street, Cornhill, Austin Friars, +Lothbury, Bartholomew Lane. All were +devoured. The Exchange was utterly +destroyed. “A sad sight,” says Pepys, +“nothing standing there of all the +statues or pillars, but Sir Thomas +Gresham’s picture in the corner.” By +September 4th the flames had reached +St. Paul’s, round about the roof of which +a mass of scaffolding had been erected, so +that it fell an easy prey. The stones of +the walls burst asunder with the noise of +cannon under the heat, and the lead rolled +down in streams. To recall the glory of +that historic building with its marvellous +rose-window, only Dr. Donne’s tomb and +the charred stumps of a few cloister +pillars remained. Eighty-four of the old +City churches were swept away with St. +Paul’s, and but for the courage and +energy of the Duke of York, the Temple +Church would have vanished too. Every +kind of ill-luck, indeed, seemed to help on +the work of destruction. London was +afflicted by a weak and inefficient Lord +Mayor, Sir Thomas Bludworth. “Lord, what +can I do?” he fluttered; “I am spent and my<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</span> +people pay me no heed. We pull down +houses, but Oh! Lord, the fire goeth on the +same, and burns others before we have +done.”</p> + +<p>On the other hand, Charles the Second and +his brother kept their heads. They were +about from morning till night. Westminster +Abbey, the Tower although its outer +precincts caught fire, Temple Bar, Lincoln’s +Inn Gateway, Gresham College, Smithfield, +Bishopsgate Street and Aldgate were saved. +The river was crowded with the boats of +fugitives; the heights of Hampstead were +covered with tents and such rough huts as +could be speedily set up. Volumes of black +suffocating smoke hung over the burning +city like a pall. Of the four hundred and +fifty acres within the City walls from +Ludgate to the Tower and from the river to +Cripplegate, only seventy-five were left with +houses still standing upon them, while of +the liberties beyond the walls, sixty-three +acres were consumed. Houses, however, +could be rebuilt, even wonderful churches +could be replaced if there were an architect +with the genius to design them—and such +an architect England had the good fortune<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</span> +at that hour to possess. But some irreparable +losses were sustained, and amongst +them none more grievous than the losses of +the manuscripts of Shakespeare and his +fellow dramatists. It seems that a great +many of these were taken from Paternoster +Row, and placed for security in the crypt +of St. Paul’s, where indeed they were safe +from the actual touch of flame, even in +such a fire as that which had raged during +this first week of September, but so great +was the heat that the manuscripts were all +reduced to ashes.</p> + +<p>On the afternoon of September 6th the +fire was finally stopped at Temple Bar; and +it must be reckoned an astounding example +of the courage of the race that the houseless +population set itself at once methodically +to work to rebuild their city. Within a +week, three plans for a new London were +presented to Charles the Second; one made +by John Evelyn, famous for his diary; the +second by Robert Hook, the philosopher; +the third by Sir Christopher Wren. This +last was accepted. Had it been carried out, +we should have had a London made beautiful +by straight broad streets and central<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</span> +“Piazzes,” as he called them. But it +would have been a London a little too formal +perhaps to suit the English independence. +As a matter of fact, the citizens did not wait +for any plans, but returning to the sites of +their old houses which must have been +still smouldering and hot to the foot, they +began forthwith to rebuild. Amongst the +first of such undertakings was the Royal +Exchange.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="fig3"> +<a href="images/fig3big.jpg"> +<img src="images/fig3.jpg" alt="second"> +</a> +<p class="caption">THE SECOND ROYAL EXCHANGE.<br> +<span class="greentext">(click image to enlarge)</span></p> +</div> + +<p>Sixteen days after the Fire of London had +first broken out in Pudding Lane, a committee +was formed to rebuild the Royal +Exchange. The business of the Exchange, +even to the shops of the Pawn, was transferred +to Gresham College. The shopkeepers +offered to pave the quadrangle of +the new building in exchange for their +accommodation in Gresham College: and +with the hope—a vain hope as it proved to +be—of preventing destruction by another +fire, the City Surveyors determined to draw +a street on the west and on the east of +the new building. The credit for this second +building, which was erected from materials +as far as possible resembling those which had +been used in the original building, has been<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</span> +improperly given to Sir Christopher Wren, +but the records of the Building Committee +make it clear that Mr. Jarman, the second +City Surveyor, was the architect who designed +the plan. It is to be noticed that +once more the front of the Royal Exchange +was upon Cornhill, with a fine portico, which +earned the special favour of Charles the +Second, no doubt because in a nitch upon one +side was a statue of Charles the First, and in +a nitch upon the other, one of his royal self. +It is possible that his approbation would have +been less hearty if he could have foreseen +that after the next fire that same statue of +him would be put up to auction and sold +for £9. Almost within a year of the burning +there was once more a royal procession, when +Charles the Second rode on horseback with +several persons of quality. He placed the +first stone with the usual ceremonies in the +presence of a great many people, and then +in a special shed upon the new Scottish +Walk, roofed with a canopy and hung with +tapestry, he was entertained to dinner by +the City and the Mercers’ Company. Pepys +saw the King pass with his kettle drums and +his trumpets on the way to the Exchange, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</span>and in his busy way hurried after him, but +the poor man found the gates shut when he +arrived at the building, and could only get +in to see it after the stone had been laid and +the King had departed. A month later, the +Duke of York laid the foundation stone of +the pillar on the east side of the north +entrance, and a fortnight afterwards Prince +Rupert performed the same ceremony on +the east side of the south entrance. There +was some delay in the building, and for +reasons which strike home to-day. Bricks +were dear; the only suitable bricks were to +be got from Walham Green, and the supply +was below the demand. The work however, +except for the statues and no doubt other +ornamentations, was completed within three +years, and was opened without any great +ceremony by Sir William Turner, the Lord +Mayor of the day, who “came and walked +twice about it and congratulated the +merchants of the ’Change on its account.” +Charles the Second was expected, but he did +not come: and we picture to ourselves the +disappointment of the assemblage—disappointment +mingled probably with a good +deal of outspoken criticism, and not a few<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</span> +sarcasms as to whether some new beauty +had not come to Court; and, probably, +on the part of the Committee, sharpened +by an uneasy recollection of a certain fine +equestrian statue in white marble upon +which they had turned their backs. This +was a statue of the King on horseback, and +it was offered by Sir Robert Vyner to stand +in the middle of the Quadrangle. The +Committee, however, came to the conclusion +that it was too big for the site and +would interfere with the main business of +the building, which was the transaction +of business by the merchants of the City. +Charles the Second was not a man to take +with humility any disregard for his Royal +dignity, and it is quite possible that, with a +chuckle of pleasure, he left his good citizens +to wait for him on the Royal Exchange as +a lesson to them in the future.</p> + +<p>The quadrangle, however, was not long +to be deprived of the patronage of his +presence, for a statue of him by Grinling +Gibbons, in the dress of a Roman Emperor, +with a laurel wreath on his head and a +truncheon in his hand, was set up in the +centre fifteen years later. This statue you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</span> +may still see in a niche in the south-east +corner of the third Royal Exchange: while +its own brother, a statue in bronze of James +the Second in the same remarkable garb, +by the same artist, still stands chillily in +the open air with its back to the red +Admiralty building, and looks across St. +James’s Park towards Buckingham Palace.</p> + +<p>It cannot be said that, beautiful in its +architecture as the second Royal Exchange +was, the building held the same importance +as the first Exchange had done in the days +of Queen Elizabeth. Social conditions were +changing quickly in England. Coffee +houses sprang into a rapid popularity and +the merchants drifted to them more and +more for the interchange of business. The +shops became difficult to let and rents dwindled +away. Over the Exchange there came +to hang an air of disuse and squalor. The +frequenters in the time of Queen Anne are +thus described by the “Spectator”: “Instead +of the assembly of honourable merchants, +substantial tradesmen and knowing masters +of shops, the mumpers, the halt, the lame +and the blind or vendors of trash—apples, +plums....” A little further on he tells<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</span> +us “the benches are so filthy that no one +could sit down, yet the Beadles at Christmas +have the impudence to ask for their boxes +though they deserve strapado.” This is a +far cry from those gaily lighted galleries +where of an evening the gallants of Queen +Elizabeth’s day used to loiter. Fashion +had moved to the West—chiefly because +fashion had been in banishment upon the +Continent during the Commonwealth—and +when it returned with Charles the Second +into England, it found its houses already +occupied.</p> + +<p>London had spread out consequently +through Lincoln’s Inn Fields to Bloomsbury +and Soho; Pall Mall was laid out in great +mansions; nobles moved westwards, and +a new city of shops, clubs and coffee +houses grew up in the neighbourhood of +their new homes. The factor of numbers +had thus become a cause of that gulf between +the gentry and the “cit,” which the +next hundred years was more and more to +widen. The great wars of the 18th century +dug the trench deeper. Soldiering became +an ill-paid occupation demanding the +monopoly of a man’s life. The sons of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</span> +the nobles became the officers of Marlborough, +and later on of Wellington; they +were transformed into a class apart; they +lost their touch with the business side of +London; they even became a trifle contemptuous.</p> + +<p>How great the change was from the days +when Sir Thomas Gresham entertained +Queen Elizabeth in Austin Friars any man +may see by such diaries as time has handed +down to us. There remain two, still kept +by the descendants of Edward Forster, for +many years a Governor of the Royal Exchange +Assurance Corporation. Mr. Forster +was a commercial magnate in the grand +style. He was at one time head of three +great City Corporations: The Royal Exchange +Assurance; the Russia Company; +the Mercers’ Company; and he added to +these duties that of Deputy-Governor to the +London Docks. In a word, he was the very +type of citizen, who two hundred years before +would have been hand in glove with the +great statesmen of the Realm. The diaries +give us a picture of a gentleman living +quietly at Walthamstow—a man with a love +of nature and a taste for art, and possessed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</span> +of a queer gift for painting landscapes with +reeds. We read of him being robbed of his +purse by a footpad on his way to the City. +We read of certain simple treats to his children: +“We all went to London,” writes one +of them, “and after with Papa in a coach +to Drury Lane Playhouse, getting in at +half price with the 4th Act”—Oh! frugal +Papa! But perhaps it was just as well, +for the play was “Measure for Measure,” +and hardly suitable for young Benjamin and +Thomas. On this occasion, the family +saw Mrs. Siddons in the part of Isabella. +At another time, “Mama, Aunt Sukey, +Miss Ward and I went to the Royal Exchange +Assurance in a coach. But Pa and +Ned were there; uncle came afterwards. +We went into the room which looks into +Cornhill, with a balcony.” This was in +October of 1783, and the family went to +the Royal Exchange to see and hear peace +proclaimed with France and Spain. “The +Heralds proclaimed it betwixt 1 and 2 +o’clock. There was a long procession of +horse soldiers—some men with hatchets on +horseback, some with trumpets, which they +sounded. Afterwards came the Lord Mayor +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</span>in his coach.” Without a doubt, the period +during which the second Royal Exchange +stood was one during which the City merchants +lost much of their high position, and +probably something of their broad outlook +upon the world. They became concentrated +upon their immediate affairs. They +lived often over their business premises +in the very heart of the City itself, or, if +they travelled further afield, they made +their homes in suburbs like Denmark Hill, +and kept on the whole to themselves.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="fig4"> +<a href="images/fig4big.jpg"> +<img src="images/fig4.jpg" alt="second"> +</a> +<p class="caption">INTERIOR OF THE SECOND ROYAL EXCHANGE.<br> +<span class="greentext">(click image to enlarge)</span></p> +</div> + +<p>The downfall of Napoleon, however, +the extension of the Franchise—which for +a time placed the whole power of Government +in the hands of the middle class—and +the prosperity of which steam power was +the source in a hundred directions, began, +in the reign of Queen Victoria, to break +down that very real though intangible +Temple Bar between the City and the West +End. These factors did their work +thoroughly in the end, but while the Royal +Exchange was burning for the second time +in 1838, the City of London had still a +social side of its own, which it is difficult +to-day even to imagine. Walk through the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</span> +City streets at ten o’clock of the night now, +and the echo of your footsteps will sound +to you solitary and strange. You will +pass beneath a chain of lamplights, gleaming +upon empty pathways, looked down upon +by lightless windows. If you could put +yourself back to 1838, you would find the +upper storeys noisy with the laughter and +the games of children, while below, behind +rep curtains, the elders sat over their port +round their mahogany dinner tables.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="fig5"> +<a href="images/fig5big.jpg"> +<img src="images/fig5.jpg" alt="fire"> +</a> +<p class="caption">THE DESTRUCTION OF THE SECOND ROYAL EXCHANGE BY FIRE, 1838.<br> +<span class="greentext">(click image to enlarge)</span></p> +</div> + + +<hr class="full x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="c3">CHAPTER III.</h2> +</div> + +<p class="c sp less">THE THIRD ROYAL EXCHANGE.</p> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>T is astonishing that no one has imagined +a curse of fire upon the Royal Exchange.</p> + +<p>Many a country estate has fallen under +that ban with less reason. For on the night of +the 10th January 1838—a night of so hard a +frost that the very water from the fire engines +froze in mid air—the Royal Exchange +was burnt down for the second time. A letter +from an eye-witness is happily on record. +The fire began at night, and our witness, +the son of the Rector of St. Michaels, Cornhill, +then a boy of four and a half years, was +awakened in his nursery by the cries of +warning in the street, and the noise made +in dragging the Parish fire engine from the +old Watch-house beneath his windows. +At this time, as our last chapter has shown +us, Cornhill was not merely a street of offices +open by day and empty at night. It was a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</span> +street of family residences, and consequently +fire in that crowded neighbourhood was +more than usually terrible.</p> + +<p>Mr. Norville, the hatter, Mr. Leggett, the +print seller, and a dozen other small shopkeepers +who were wont to stand in their +doorways in the morning and greet each +other across Cornhill, had to get their +families into safety as best they could. +Speed was necessary, for the great tower of +the second Royal Exchange, never a satisfactory +feature of the building—since already +it had had once to be replaced—threatened +to fall across the street and crush the houses +opposite. A good many of these inhabitants +found refuge in the Rectory of St. Michaels, +while the valuable contents of the shops +were safely stored in the Church. It seems +as if some freakish spirit of humour lurked +about the burning edifice, for while the +tower was yet tottering, the bells started +playing “There is nae luck about the house,” +and then fell with a crash into the flames +below.</p> + +<p>The destruction was almost complete. +A few relics testified by their paucity to +the completeness of the disaster. Amongst<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</span> +them we must not count those statues of +the Kings of England which were said to +have fallen down on their faces during the +first fire leaving the statue of Sir Thomas +Gresham alone proudly erect. The Grinling +Gibbons figure of Charles the Second as +a Roman Emperor, which, as we have seen, +held the post of honour in the middle of the +Quadrangle, was saved with the Bushnill +figures on the right and left of the Portico in +Cornhill, and strangely enough, the great gilt +grasshopper, which if report speaks truly, not +only rode on high above the second Royal +Exchange, but even above the original +building of Sir Thomas Gresham. The work +of restoration was quickly taken in hand +by the Mercers’ Company and the City +Corporation, and before the decade was out +the Third Royal Exchange was opened by +Queen Victoria and the Prince Consort.</p> + +<p>It is very likely that ancient engravings of +Palaces and great courts, with the delicate +flourishes of their lettering and their dainty +ornamentations, lend to the buildings they +portray a greater beauty than they +actually possess. But it is difficult to +look at any old pictures of the first two<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</span> +Exchanges and flatter oneself into the belief +that the third Exchange vies with either of +them in grace. Art is the strangest and +most illusive creature—at one time it will +visit a whole race of men, so that nothing +they do will be insignificant or mean. +Thus, the adventurers, who sailed out to the +Spanish Main in the days of Queen Elizabeth, +wrote down the histories of their +voyages in such great English as men to-day +would give their ears to have at their command; +and, moreover, they wrote it easily +and with a running pen. At other times +Art has refused to touch with inspiration +a single soul of them. The architects of the +Victorian Age were not men who dreamed +in stone. They could pass down Parliament +Street, by the Horse Guards, Whitehall +and Westminster Hall with a bandage +over their eyes and over their spirit. They +gave us the Crystal Palace and all the +dreariness of the Cromwell Road. Londoners +may be thankful when they look +upon the Royal Exchange as it stands +to-day. The best of it is undoubtedly the +front, with its great Corinthian Pillars, its +high flight of steps and the open spread of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</span> +pavement in front of it. For the rest, if +the building is plain, it is plain to the very +point of dignity, and with its great and +handsome offices, it serves its purpose +to-day as the other Exchanges served theirs.</p> + +<p>It is not the purpose of this chapter to +give you an account of the building. You +can buy a little book for sixpence, rich +in detail and curious information, from the +Beadle at the door. You can walk out past +the doors of Lloyd’s offices to the Peabody +statue—if you will—and looking upwards +see the gilt Grasshopper of Sir Thomas +Gresham’s crest on the summit of the tower +turning to the wind.</p> + +<p>Over what a curious succession of scenes +and pageants has that gilt Grasshopper +presided! Visits of kings and queens, now +dressed in one way, now another, now +riding on horseback, now drawn in great +gilt carriages, now gliding silently in motor +cars; proclamations of war and peace, +the nation once your friend now your +enemy, once your enemy now your friend! +The Bank of England was not built when +the Grasshopper was first lifted to its +place, and where the Mansion House now<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</span> +stands, the cattle lowed in the Stock +Market. Endow for a moment that Grasshopper +with life and recollection! It has +seen London spread out in an almost +unimaginable growth. The sails upon the +river have given place to the chimney stack, +and the quiet nights of other days are +now broken by the hooting of syrens. And +it heard in 1914 the tramp of London men +drilling upon the Gresham hone stones to +fit themselves for war. We may hope that +for a century at least it will hear that sound +no more.</p> +<hr class="full x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</span></p> + +<p class="c sp large" id="c4">PART II.</p> +</div> + +<p class="c sp up">THE BUSINESS</p> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak">CHAPTER IV.</h2> +</div> + +<p class="c sp less">THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE AND THE<br> +BIRTH OF THE ROYAL EXCHANGE<br> +ASSURANCE CORPORATION.</p> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>O get rich quick in the shortest possible +space of time with the least possible +expenditure of effort is a natural +ambition. To a man we want to acquire +riches, and at all events when we are young +we encourage a secret hope that we shall +wake up on some glorious morning to +find we have achieved them. So much of +honourable ambition presumes wealth as +its starting-point. With the most of us, +however, the hope is kept secret—a +dream to be played with rather than a +definite project to be realised. But +every now and then the hope breaks +its bounds and spreads with the rapidity +and the violence of a contagion, from +man to man, and from woman to woman.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</span> +There have been several periods during +which the contagion has raged. Many will +remember the autumn of the year which +ended with the Jameson Raid. In those +months women were almost as conspicuous +as men in Throgmorton Street. +Dealers in South African securities would +buy in the morning and sell in the afternoon +and put any sum up to £10,000 in their +pockets as a consequence. But the fever +has never exhibited itself in so virulent and +blatant a degree as during the second decade +of the 18th Century—a decade made famous +by the South Sea Bubble.</p> + +<p>It is strange to realise that the man, who +brought all that hubbub of fashion back +to the neighbourhood of the Royal Exchange, +was a tall and ungainly pockmarked +Scotchman, Law by name—at one +time lying in a London Prison under sentence +of death for murder. Law escaped to Paris +and there founded the Mississippi Company, +which, during the first years of the century +sent France wild with a frenzy of speculation. +Some southerly wind blew the madness +over to England, and in 1711 Robert Harley, +Earl of Oxford, founded the South Sea +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</span>Company, to take over England’s Floating +Debt of ten million pounds. The Government +guaranteed six per cent. for a term of +years, and the Company was given the +monopoly of trade with the Southern +Atlantic Coasts of America. One or two +solid brains, such as Sir Robert Walpole, +stood out against the scheme, but speculation +was in the air and they had no +following.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="fig6"> +<a href="images/fig6big.jpg"> +<img src="images/fig6.jpg" alt="bubble"> +</a> +<p class="caption">SOUTH SEA BUBBLE BROADSHEET. 1720.<br> +<span class="greentext">(click image to enlarge)</span></p> +</div> + +<p>It must be conceded that the name of +the company was in itself a stroke of +genius. The South Seas! The words +have from the earliest days of Elizabeth +had some queer romantic appeal to the +people of England. Read “Hakluyt’s +Voyages,” and you cannot but rise from +your reading with a recognition that, +beyond all the visions of gold and jewels +and wealth which they may suggest, the +South Seas have their own particular call. +Even that pedestrian century—the 18th—could +not be deaf to it; and there +never was an idea so sure to arouse +your imagination or to loosen your purse-strings +as that of adventure in the South +Seas. Your adventure might be vicarious;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</span> +it might only be visible to you in the swelling +of your banking account, but you had a +hand in the voyage—in a sense you sailed +those sunlit and wind-ruffled waters.</p> + +<p>It seemed as if in response to the call, +Change Alley had become the centre of +England. Sedan chairs and coaches so +jostled one another in the streets which +surrounded it that a man on foot was known +to have taken one good hour before he +could cross the roadway. Women filled +that narrow alley with their hoops, and so +loud was the noise between the walls that +the stock would be at one price at one end +and at another price at the other and no +one in the middle would know the difference.</p> + + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“Then stars and garters did appear</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Among the meaner rabble;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To buy and sell, to see and hear</div> + <div class="verse indent2">The Jews and Gentiles squabble.</div> + </div><div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The greater ladies thither came,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">And plied in chariots daily,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Or pawned their jewels for a sum</div> + <div class="verse indent2">To venture in the Alley.”</div> + </div> +</div> +</div> + + +<p>All were for getting rich quickly. Life +was costly—in some respects more costly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</span> +comparatively than it is to-day. A fine +gentleman would pay £126 for a suit of +clothes, and that sum left out of account +his silk stockings and his shoe buckles, his +embroidered gloves and his clouded cane. +Lord Mayor Sawbridge was stopped by +highwaymen on Turnham Green, when he +was returning home from Kew, and sent +back to the Mansion House as naked as on +the day when he was born—of so much +value were the fine clothes he wore. +Money was the great need and throughout +the day such a roar arose from Exchange +Alley as must have set the old Grasshopper +trembling and quivering on the top of the +Exchange.</p> + +<p>In 1720, George the First proposed that the +South Sea Company should take over not +merely the floating but the entire debt of +England, which at that time amounted to +£31,000,000. Even the staid Bank of England +could stand it no longer. It came in with a +proposal to take over the debt itself in the +place of this upstart Company. But the +upstart Company had several notable people +behind it, amongst them the famous—or +shall we say infamous?—Countess Von<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</span> +Platen; and the South Sea Company carried +the day against the Bank of England. +The shares jumped from 130 to 300. The +King’s proposal was debated for two months +in the House of Commons and for forty-eight +hours in the House of Lords, and on +April 7th of that year the Bill became +law.</p> + +<p>Strangely enough, the South Sea Stock +immediately fell. The Directors asked for +a million more capital, offering £300 for +£100. They got it, and they got more. +Before Midsummer, the stock had risen to +800 per cent. The satirists, as you can +imagine, got to work, but what did they +matter? Satire, from the days of Aristophanes, +has never stopped a rush. It will +hold up this or that person, this or that +group of people, to the ridicule of future +generations, but it has no check upon them +while they live. Neither Juvenal nor +Molière deterred. The “Precieuses Ridicules” +died not of satire but of their own +inanition. The satirist and his fellows +might rave as they liked against Change +Alley and the South Seas but not one<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</span> +sedan chair dropped out of the crowd in +consequence.</p> + +<p>It was not everybody, however, who was +able to get near enough, or, if he did get +near enough, to purchase the coveted stock. +Other companies, therefore, with other +projects no more unreasonable, sprang up +in the same neighbourhood. The advertised +capital of these companies ran, as a +rule, into millions. And why not? The +public was gullible. It was a matter of +prestige—of the appeal rather than of +actual cash. The nominal capital of the +various undertakings floated during the +years when the South Sea Company was +at its zenith amounted to five times the +entire currency of England and Europe. +No one asked any questions—all were +too anxious to buy.</p> + +<p>Here are a few of the proposals: +a scheme for furnishing funerals to +any part of Great Britain; another for +making looking glasses and coach glasses, +with a capital of £2,000,000; a third for +the transmutation of quicksilver into +malleable fine metal; a fourth for ensuring +and increasing children’s fortunes; a fifth<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</span> +for building and rebuilding houses throughout +all England, with a capital of £3,000,000 +(this, by the way, is a scheme which might +have a chance to-day). Yet a further +philanthropic set of gentlemen floated a +scheme for supplying the town of Deal with +fresh water. Another set, this time more +ingenious than philanthropic, proposed to +make deal boards out of sawdust. And +all these schemes obtained their votaries. +The cry went up “Give us something to +buy,” and the response was not inadequate.</p> + +<p>Two schemes stand out especially through +the grandeur of their simplicity. The +longer one lives, the more clearly it is +proved to one that the old and simple +dodges never fail. If you want to practice +that amiable form of robbery known as the +confidence trick, be sure to practice it in its +most primæval form. An old man named +Le Brun knew the ropes. He had been +suitably educated, for as a boy he had +sailed with Sir Henry Morgan when Morgan +devastated Panama. He had been with +Patterson in Darien. He had owned a +privateer himself in the days when a +privateer was a polite name for a pirate, but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</span> +like the men of his class he had lived like a +fighting cock when he had the money, and +in his old age he was poor. The fame of +Law in Paris attracted him over the +Channel. The fame of the South Sea +Company and the doings in Change Alley +brought him hot-foot back again. He was, +as it were, in his own country. He set out +a wonderful project. You had only to +possess £5 to reap the full benefit of it. He +had an office in Change Alley. It was called +simply, broadly, sympathetically—“Office +of Insurance and Annuity for Everybody.” +“Anybody,” Mr. Le Brun announced, +“who paid him five pounds was to be assured +of receiving a life income of £100 per +annum, as soon as a sufficient number had +subscribed!” A great number subscribed—but +not a sufficient number. The number +had to be ever so great before Mr. Le Brun +could be able to put his wonderful scheme +into operation.</p> + +<p>A still simpler device was imagined by a +gentleman whose name (alas!) is not known. +He propounded a company for carrying on +an undertaking of great advantage, “but +nobody to know what it is.” The capital of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</span> +this singular undertaking was to be a mere +fleabite—half a million pounds in five +thousand £100 shares. But—and here the +anonymous benefactor showed his discretion—you +had only to deposit £2 a share and +you obtained by the mere fact of that +deposit £100 a year on each share. This +worthy person opened his office in +the morning. By the time business in +Change Alley ceased and the ladies and +gentlemen retired to the lighted candles of +the West End, he had secured deposits to +the tune of £2,000. The next morning the +office was closed and it was never opened +again. These schemes were iridescent as +the mayfly, and had just as long a life. +They sparkled and glinted in the sunlight +through a day, and the next morning they +were not.</p> + +<p>After the shares of the South Sea Company +had risen to 800 per cent., a good many +prudent people began to realise their +fortunes, and stocks accordingly fell. The +Directors asked for more money, obtained +it, and the shares in August had risen to no +less than a thousand per cent. But the end +was near, and in the month of September<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</span> +the Bubble burst. A member of Parliament +of that day wrote to Lord Chancellor +Middleton: “The consternation is inexpressible, +the rage beyond description, and +the case altogether so desperate that I do +not see any plan or scheme so much as +thought of for averting the blow, so that I +cannot pretend to guess what is next to be +done.” The Bank of England made an +effort. It asked for a subscription of three +million pounds for the restoration of credit, +but did not get it. The South Sea Stock fell +to 135, and bankers and goldsmiths who had +lent money on South Sea Bonds were compelled +to fly the country. Parliament was +summoned to meet, and George the First +returned post haste from Hanover. An +enquiry was instituted into the management +of the Company and a series of frauds was +discovered in which members of the Government +were shamefully involved. Mr. +Secretary Craggs and Mr. Aislabie, the +Chancellor of the Exchequer, went down with +a crash. People did not exact from the +Ministers of the Crown in those days the +same high standard of propriety which is +demanded to-day. But the scandal in this<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</span> +case was too great for extenuation. Aislabie +went to prison, and bonfires were lighted in +the London streets on the day he was +sent there. Mr. Secretary Craggs no doubt +would have gone on the same road but his +son, for whose sake, it was currently said, +he had amassed a million and a half out of +the Bubble, died suddenly, and the father +was stricken with apoplexy. The Countess +Von Platen, with her two nieces, was proved +to have been given £20,000 worth of +fictitious stock as an inducement to her to +use her influence to push the Bill through +Parliament. There were reasons why action +could not be taken against her. The curious +may turn to Thackeray’s wonderful picture +of the Court of Hanover in the “Four +Georges,” where he will be rewarded by one +of the most startling and dramatic stories +which history has ever had to tell.</p> + +<p>In the midst of these times, inauspicious +for solid business proposals, if ever times +were, the Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation +was born. A Mr. Case Billingsley, +of the firm of Bradley and Billingsley, +Solicitors, himself a member of the Mercers’ +Company, proposed a scheme for marine<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</span> +insurance, and gave to it the title of the +“Public Assurance Office.” He opened a +list at the Mercers’ Hall on the 12th August, +1717, and asked for a subscription of +£1,250,000, of which £100,000 was to be +paid up. The list was closed in January +of the following year. But during the +months when the list was open, the proposer +of a rival scheme, Sir John Williams, +amalgamated with him. The list being +closed, Case Billingsley applied to the +Attorney General for a Charter. A Charter +was refused, although in this case Sir +Robert Walpole supported it; Billingsley +had moreover the support of Lord Onslow, +a member of the Government, and of Lord +Chetwynd, who was interested in a similar +scheme. A good many people did not look +further than the end of their noses. Lady +Cowper, the wife of Lord Chancellor Cowper, +frankly wrote of both Onslow’s and +Chetwynd’s proposals as “Bubbles,” and +stated that they were on the same plane as +the South Sea Company—frauds upon the +public—no more, no less.</p> + +<p>Billingsley, however, and his Directors +did not lie down under the refusal. They<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</span> +cast about and bought up for a song an old +Charter of Queen Elizabeth’s time, which +had nothing whatever to do with Assurance +in any form. It was a Charter of the Mines +Royal, Mineral and Battery Works, which +in itself was an amalgamation dating back +three years. Under this Charter, with its +curious coat of arms of a miner working +by candle light and extracting from the +earth a veritable sleet of golden drops, +the Billingsley Assurance Company set up +to practice Marine Insurance. From the +outset it is clear that the Company did a +profitable business, for it declared, and so +far as we know paid, a dividend in 1719.</p> + +<p>It did not, however, pursue its affairs +without opposition. Petitions were presented +against the Company by private +underwriters who foresaw ruin ahead of +them, on the ground that it was doing +business which the Charter did not entitle +it to do. It is impossible to say what might +have happened to this Company had not +some ingenious mind amongst its Directors +recognised, or had not some hint been given +by one of His Majesty’s Ministers, that +King George’s Civil List was short of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</span> +six hundred thousand pounds. The two +Insurance Companies—that fathered by +Lord Chetwynd and now known as the +“London Assurance Corporation,” and the +“Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation,” +which was covered by the wing of Lord +Onslow—proposed to make good this +deficiency in return for their Charters. +Accordingly in the year 1720, on May +4th, King George recommended his faithful +Commons to grant the requests of +these Corporations, and the Bill conceding +them their Charters received the Royal +Assent on June 10th. It was after the +Charter was granted that the Royal Exchange +Assurance Corporation took the title +which it has since retained. Billingsley was, +as we have said, a member of the Mercers’ +Company. He had established the offices +of the Corporation in the Royal Exchange, +and no name could have been more suitable.</p> + +<p>But it is to be observed that this was the +year during which the South Sea Bubble +swelled and burst. The Royal Exchange +Assurance Corporation failed to fulfil the +conditions of its Charter almost as soon as +it had received it. The Corporation was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</span> +organised on a sound financial basis, for in +1720, it had a surplus of £14,000 odd, after +all obligations had been discharged. But +it owned stock in the South Sea Company, +and when that Company crumbled and all +credit was shaken to its foundations, the +Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation +passed through a troublous time. It declared +a dividend, but it could not pay it, and by +September of that year it was short of two +instalments of £50,000 each, which it owed +to the Civil List. A subsequent Act of +Parliament, however, relieved the Royal +Exchange Assurance Corporation and the +London Assurance Corporation of their +liabilities in this direction, after they had +paid between them something like a quarter +of a million. The subsequent history of +the Royal Exchange Assurance has been +one of sound business and consequent +prosperity. It began with Marine insurance +and in 1721 added life and fire.</p> +<hr class="full x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="c5">CHAPTER V.</h2> +</div> + +<p class="c sp less">ON ASSURANCE.</p> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span>HE history of assurance is not a +sprightly theme. It is so hedged +about with details of old ordinances, +tables of mortality and specimens of +fire marks, as are enough to drive the +general reader into the next parish. +The historians begin as a rule with the +Phœnicians. And they are wise. Everybody +has heard of the Phœnicians and that +they were the first known traders to visit +Britain from overseas. You can safely +assert that the Phœnicians practised marine +insurance; and on the other hand, you can +equally safely deny that they knew anything +about assurance at all for there is no one +to contradict you. There is no evidence +of any kind.</p> + +<p>This, however, is certain. Marine assurance +was the first form of assurance<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</span> +practised amongst men; and, inevitably, the +first form. For the risk was evident and +above all could be estimated with accuracy. +The value of the ship and the worth of its +cargo were known, and a fair reckoning +could be made of the perils which were +likely to be encountered on the voyage. +Probably the very first edict concerning +this practice was issued when Justinian +was Emperor, in the year 533. He +limited the legal rate of interest to +six per cent. in all cases except that of +“Fœnus Nauticum”; and “Fœnus +Nauticum” was that early form of marine +assurance which we know by the name of +Bottomry. In this one case, interest was +allowed to be exacted at the rate of twelve +per cent.</p> + +<p>Upon the heels of Justinian, however, +followed the Middle Ages, and they wiped +out Justinian’s edict and any arrangement +of a similar nature, which was to be found +in any parts over which the Church ruled. +Interest upon the investment of capital +was accounted as usury and an offence +against God, to be corrected by burnings +and floggings, and the other delicate<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</span> +persuasions of those days. We have no +sure knowledge when marine insurance was +revived, but we may be fairly certain that +its revival was due to the far-sighted policy +of the Hanseatic League, which had made +its merchants the great sea-carriers of the +Northern nations. The League published +various sea codes during the 13th century +and consolidated them at the beginning of +the 14th in an authoritative pronouncement +known as “The Laws of Wisby.” Wisby +was a town on the western side of the Isle +of Gothland in the Baltic, and at that time +one of the most flourishing staple towns of +the North. These Laws of Wisby do +actually for the first time mention the +word Bottomry, but in such a way as to +make it clear that Bottomry had long been +practised. Bottomry was a wager. The +Underwriter bet the Shipowner that his +ship with its cargo would arrive safely at +its port of destination. The great difference +between Bottomry and an ordinary wager, +and between Bottomry and a modern form +of assurance, was this: the Underwriter paid +the money over at once, and, if he won—that +is, if a ship arrived in safety—received<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</span> +his money back with the addition of the +premium agreed upon. The Shipowner, in +a word, held the stakes.</p> + +<p>This primitive form of insurance developed +quickly. It became insurance as +we understand it to-day. Thus in the +“Chronyk Van Vlaenden”—an ancient +history—it is written:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> + +<p>“On the demand of the inhabitants of +Bruges, the Count of Flanders permitted +in the year 1310, the establishment +in this town of a Chamber of Assurance, +by means of which the Merchants could +insure their goods, exposed to the +Risks of the Sea, or elsewhere, in paying +a stipulated Percentage. But, in order +that an Establishment so useful to +Commerce might not be dissolved as +soon as formed, he ordered the laying +down of several Laws and Regulations +which the Assurers as well as the +Assured, are bound to observe.”</p> +</div> + +<p>Bruges was at this period the very capital +of the commerce of the North. It was the +great storehouse, the chief market and the +main sea-port of that far-flung League.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</span> +It was no uncommon thing for a hundred +and fifty tall ships to enter on a single tide +into Sluys, the outer harbour of Bruges.</p> + +<p>The first definite ordinances concerning +marine insurance, however, came from a +very different part of the world. The +Magistrates of Barcelona, certainly on four +separate occasions during the 15th Century, +formulated Rules which were one and +all intended to prevent the over insurance +of unseaworthy ships—a growing scandal +and danger of those times. The Barcelona +trade was mainly with the Ports of +Italy; and the Grand Council of Venice, +before the century was over, followed in +the footsteps of Barcelona. The Venetian +Decree starts by declaring that, owing to +the perverse nature of mankind, people +<i>will</i> quarrel about money matters, and +proceeds to deal with such very modern +dangers as that arising from carrying an +excessive cargo on deck. Ordinances +issued in Venice were certain to find their +way into England, for the Italians, or +Lombardy men as they were called, had +already gained a solid footing in England,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</span> +and indeed were actually carrying commercial +war into the very camp of the Stillyard.</p> + +<p>The attack of the German Emperor upon +the Pope in the first half of the 13th Century, +and the influence of the Crusades, which +brought to England in Italian Fleets spices, +carpets, silks and other luxuries from the +East, were the chief causes of the Italian +invasion. With the expulsion of the Jews by +Edward the First, their position was greatly +strengthened, for, in their turn, they became +the usurers. We find the Lord Mayor, +at the King’s command setting aside for them +a district of London in which to reside—the +district now known as Lombard Street—and +so powerful did they become that even +though their unpopularity made them +objects of continual attacks by the populace +and continual Petitions for their expulsion +to successive Kings, they were only dislodged +in the end by their own fears for their +personal safety.</p> + +<p>Thus, long before any decree with regard +to marine insurance was issued by a Government +of England, the practice of insurance +was common and regular in the country. +The first British Marine Insurance Act bears<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</span> +the date of 1601, and states in its Preamble +that Marine Insurance has been “tyme out +of mynde an usuage amongste merchantes, +both of this realme and of forraine nacyons.” +It mentions, in fact, “an Office of Insurance +within the City of London,” where a registry +of marine insurance policies was compiled. +This Act of Queen Elizabeth established a +permanent commission for the hearing of +cases arising out of policies of marine +insurance. The Commission was to sit for +the time being under the presidency of the +Judge of the Admiralty and the Recorder of +London. It was to consist of two members +of Civil Law, two common lawyers and eight +grave and discreet merchants, and was to +hold its Sessions once a week.</p> + +<p>The Act, however, found no favour with +the Merchants of the City of London, +chiefly, no doubt, because it allowed appeals +to the Court of Chancery, which in the +slowness of its procedure seems in those +days not to have lagged behind the Court +of Chancery, as Dickens found it in the days +of “Jarndyce versus Jarndyce.” The Act +accordingly fell, after a generation, into +disuse. But the practice of assurance<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</span> +steadily increased and, with the coming of +Lloyds and the granting of the Charters to +the two great Corporations—the Royal +Exchange Assurance and the London +Assurance—was gradually placed upon a +legal and scientific basis.</p> + +<p>In the order of history, life insurance +followed upon marine, and fire insurance +upon life. At first sight, to anyone who +forms in his mind anything like a vivid +picture of the crowded wooden houses, the +medley of thatched roofs, which made up a +mediæval city, the order may seem strange. +One might imagine that the danger of fire, +and the necessity of guarding against its +widespread terrors, would be ever present. +But it is necessary to remember that, as +before the Great Fire went the Great +Plague in the sequence of facts, so, also, in +the sequence of loss, mortality and damage, +fire limped behind disease. The mediæval +house in a dry summer was tinder to a +spark, but winter or summer it was a place +of unclean rushes with little, if any, sanitation. +Readers of the “Young Visiters,” +will recollect that the heroine put some<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</span> +“red ruge” on her cheeks because, as she +declared, she was pale owing to the drains +of the house. The demand for “red +ruge” must have been very extensive in +mediæval London. There was a disease +called the “sweating sickness,” which carried +off inhabitants in a few hours. The Plague +had visited the City many times before the +winter of 1665, and was to visit it afterwards. +There was a violence in the ordinary +conduct of life, such as you may know after +the conclusion of any great war. Medicine +was in its infancy. If your child had +scarlet fever, you wrapped it up in a scarlet +cloth; if you had the stone, as likely as +not your Doctor would make a disgusting +plaster, of which the chief ingredients were +headless crickets and beetles, and would +rub you with it; whilst the Clergy, into whose +hands much of the duty of healing the sick +naturally fell, were forbidden by the Pope +to shed blood under any conditions whatever. +Where the Great Fire barely slew +a hundred, the Plague carried off its thousands. +It was natural, therefore, that +men’s minds should be set on compensations +for the loss of life, before they reached the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</span> +idea of compensations for the damage done +by fire. The ancient Saxon Guilds did, +in fact, attain the rudiments of life insurance +in their provisions for the payment of +funerals, and for the maintenance of +dependents left in distress by the death of +a member of the Guild.</p> + +<p>Life insurance, indeed, would no doubt +have long since become as established a +fact as the insurance of ships, but for one +fatal difference. You knew the value of +the ship; you knew the price which its +cargo would fetch in the market; you were +upon solid ground. But with regard to life +you had nothing whatever to go upon. +There were no figures by which you could +calculate the probabilities of its duration. +Life insurance was the merest gamble, and, +even so late as the days of Charles the +Second, you could buy a Government +annuity for ninety-nine years for a cash +payment equal to fifteen and a half year’s +annuity.</p> + +<p>The Provincial Letters of Pascal drew +attention first of all to the doctrine of +probabilities, and John de Witt, a Dutchman, +applied it to the subject of life<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</span> +annuities. He made a report to his Government, +in which he used for the first time +mathematical calculations in considering the +probabilities of life. His report had no +immediate effect. But he had sown the +seed, and Leibnitz, who devoted much +time to an investigation of the theory of +chances—“c’est pour perfectionner l’art +des arts, l’art de penser,” he explained—saved +the essay from oblivion.</p> + +<p>But still there were no facts to go upon. +It was the chance of the gaming table. +How many times would Number 17 or +Number 26 turn up on the Roulette board +in a given evening, if neither of them had +turned up, say, for a week before? +What are the odds that “Trente et un et +après” will be seen at the “Trente et +quarante” table ten times in the course +of an evening? It was with the limping +guidance of such questions as these that the +early forms of life assurance were arranged. +If the grantor of the annuity were generous, +that helped to a solution, but it was rare. +If the annuitant himself were ignorant, that +helped too, and this was more common.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</span> +Until quite recently, the value of a life was +accounted at seven years’ purchase.</p> + +<p>The Great Plague, however, which spread +so much desolation, lent a little help in this +direction. Such was the terror which the +Plague inspired, so overwhelming was the +fear of its return, that what we should +now call the <i>morale</i> of the race was shaken. +The people of those days were as vague in +their computations of numbers as in their +spelling, and rumour would exaggerate +into millions the deaths of thousands. In +order, therefore, to reassure the public +mind after the Great Plague, Bills of +Mortality were issued by the various +Parishes by Order of the Government. +Up to the end of the 17th Century the +appearance of these Bills was sporadic. +But, with the beginning of the 18th Century, +so useful had they already proved, they +became a regular element in Parish life. +They were made up on Wednesdays, published +on Thursdays, and anyone who cared +to pay 4s. a year could subscribe for a copy.</p> + +<p>The progress towards a system of +Assurance, as will be seen, is so far slow. +We have got from the gaming tables by<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</span> +way of the Great Plague to Bills of Mortality. +But still there is hardly a glimmer +of science. The Bills of Mortality themselves +suffered from a grievous defect from +the point of view of insurance. They +included a statement of the cause of death, +and even of the particular disease from which +the patients died, if—and it is a considerable +“if”—the disease were amongst those +known to the medical faculty. But they +did not give ages. And without ages the +probabilities of the duration of life were +still mere guesswork. Life insurance, as +we understand it, is based upon a scientific +computation in which the ages of the insured +are the first consideration. During +that Century, however, three men appeared, +to whose efforts the real science of insurance +owes its chief debt.</p> + +<p>The first of these men—one John Graunt, +the son of a tradesman, who had migrated +from Lancaster and settled in Birchin +Lane—enjoyed no more of the opportunities +of education than the sons of +other tradesmen. He left an unknown +school early for the counter of his +father, shared in the public work of his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</span> +Ward, and became a Major in the train +bands; but some spark in the man set his +thoughts upon the laws of life so far as the +Bills of Mortality helped to their elucidation. +He seems to have been impressed, and even +annoyed, by the extraordinary carelessness +with which men reckoned the population +of London. It was spoken of in millions. +One grave writer, indeed, went so far as +calmly to assert that there were two million +less people living in London in one particular +year than in the year which had preceded +it; and he made this astounding statement +as though it were a matter which +anyone might expect.</p> + +<p>John Graunt published in 1662 his +“National and Political Reflections on the +Bills of Mortality.” The work made a +great stir, and did not, by the way, increase +its author’s popularity, for he accounted +the population of London at 384,000, +and this calculation, which was very +near the truth, did not find favour in +the eyes of those swelling signors who +only condescended to think in millions. +The book, however, within the year, passed +into a second edition. It set men thinking,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</span> +and it impressed one, whom, most of all, so +dry a subject would have been likely to +repel—no less a person than His Majesty +Charles himself. Charles the Second recommended +John Graunt to the Royal Society, +and charged the Fellows in round terms +“That if they found any more such tradesmen +they should admit them all.” The +book found its way across the Channel, and +in consequence Louis XIV. ordered a +register of births and deaths to be kept in +France, of a character much more strict +than was observed in any other country of +Europe.</p> + +<p>The Reflections contained many surprising +odds and ends of calculation. John +Graunt computed that seven men out of +every hundred in England live to the age of +seventy; that only three women out of +two hundred died in childbed and only +one in labour; and that out of one hundred +people, only one will be left alive at the age +of 76 and none at the age of 80. He deduced +from his calculations that the world was +not more than 100,000 years old, and he +drew, probably for the first time, that distinction +in land values which has made,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</span> +and continues to make, so loud a stir in +our generation. For, in putting questions +as to the amount of hay an acre that a +meadow might bear, or the number of cattle +which it might feed, he adds “of which +particulars I quote the intrinsic value, +for there is another value, merely accidental +or extrinsic, consisting of the causes why a +parcel of land lying for a good market may +be worth double another parcel, though but +of the same intrinsic goodness; which +answers the question why lands in the +North of England are worth but sixteen +years’ purchase and those of the West +above twenty-eight.” He aimed at classifying +the vocations of men, with a word, +by the way, against Doctors, who persuade +“credulous and delicate people that their +bodies are out of tune.” He thus raised +a number of interesting problems for the +speculation of thinking men, and there is +little doubt that to the influence of his +book was due a vital amendment in the +Bills of Mortality. In 1728, the ages of +the dead were included as well as the ailments +from which they had died.</p> + +<p>The second of the three men was Sir<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</span> +William Petty, a man of a very different +stamp. He was a speculator; he had a +great love of money and a great love of land. +He probably had a sense of humour, for, when +challenged to fight a duel and having the +privilege of choosing the place and the +weapons, he selected a dark cellar and a +carpenter’s axe. He certainly had the +ambition to found a great family and leave +to it a great inheritance, and in this he succeeded. +He was the son of a Romsey +tailor, and he left the house of Lansdowne.</p> + +<p>Petty wrote “An Essay on Arithmetic +concerning the Growth of the City of +London, with the Measures, Periods, Causes +and Consequences thereof.” Petty estimated +that in 1682 the population of +London was 670,000, it having doubled +itself within the preceding forty years. He +was at a loss, however, to account for the +increase. He could, he said, pick up some +remarkable accident and declare it to be +the cause, “as vulgar people make the +cause of every man’s sickness to be, what +he did last eat.” But Petty was not content +with such a device, and preferred to attribute +the swelling numbers to some natural and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</span> +spontaneous advantage that men find by +living in great societies.</p> + +<p>There is already, as you will see, a glimmer +of science, but still not much more than a +glimmer. Sir William Petty was led on +to some curious prophecies. For instance, +the world would be fully peopled within the +next 2,000 years, and the growth of London +must stop of its own accord before the +year 1800 was reached.</p> + +<p>The influence of these two men upon +thought continued to grow, and in the year +1693, the most important year in the history +of the science of insurance, Doctor Halley, +the Astronomer Royal, published in a +pamphlet a table of probabilities of the +duration of human life at every age. He at +last had something to go upon. He had +discovered that the town of Breslau, in +Silesia, had regularly issued Bills of Mortality +in which the ages of the dead were +recorded. He took the rate of mortality +in that town during five successive years, +and for the first time based the calculation +of the duration of life upon a scientific +foundation.</p> +<hr class="full x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="c6">CHAPTER VI.</h2> +</div> + +<p class="c sp less">SOME ODDS AND ENDS.</p> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span>T is curious that, although the idea of +insurance is utterly opposed to that of +gambling—the one aiming at rapid gains, +the other merely at protection from loss—still +insurance took its origin from the +doctrine of chance as observed at the +gaming tables, and led to the discovery +of quite a new form of gambling, which +achieved an extraordinary vogue in the +first half of the 18th Century. It was a +period of fine clothes and callous natures; +of high costs and lavish expenditure; of +turbulent politics and grave risks. Such +a period was the very soil in which +gambling and speculation were sure to +flourish. But, even so, the rapidity and +the ingenuity with which the possibilities +of gambling, by means of this new-fangled +fashion of insurance, were recognised are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</span> +quite remarkable. Indeed, during the +greater part of this period, gambling +in policies altogether superseded the +legitimate business of insurance. The life +of Sir Robert Walpole, whose person +seemed at one time in peril from popular +tumult, at another from party hatred, was +always there to be insured, if less attractive +propositions were not that morning to be +discovered.</p> + +<p>It is difficult to imagine the state of indignation +which would have been aroused if, +during the late war when the King went to +his troops in France, great premiums had +been asked and paid against his return. +Yet that happened to his predecessor in the +18th Century. When George the Second +fought at Dettingen, 25 per cent. was +openly paid against his return. The movements +of Charles Edward, the Young Pretender, +in 1745, provided one with a sensation +of terror in the morning and an +opportunity of putting some cash into +one’s pocket in the afternoon. There were +no daily newspapers, and in much later +days, when Wellington was fighting in the +Peninsula, the news of Busaco and Badajoz<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</span> +took a fortnight to reach London. Charles +Edward’s march to Derby at the head of +his dreaded Highlanders, and his retreat, +put a good deal of money into the hands of +the assurers of Lloyd’s and the members of +Garraway’s. Nor, when this rabble had +melted away, and he himself was a fugitive +in the Western Islands, was their ingenuity +at a loss. The Young Pretender was insured +against capture; he was insured +against decapitation; and if the poor youth +could only have gathered up the money +which was wagered one way or another upon +his luckless head, he would have had enough +for another fling at the Throne.</p> + +<p>But even though Charles Edward was not +captured, many of his followers were. +Everyone remembers how Lady Nithsdale +rescued her husband from the Tower by +dressing him in her clothes and remaining +behind in his. You would hardly believe +that that gallant exploit raised the wildest +indignation in the City of London because +so many underwriters stood to lose if +Lord Nithsdale kept his head upon his +shoulders. Would Admiral Byng be +condemned and shot? Would he be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</span> +condemned and not shot? Would he be +acquitted? What was the value of the +life of the Duke of Newcastle, Prime +Minister when Minorca was lost? Any of +these questions could form the subject +of a wager by means of a policy of assurance. +The strangest dispute of all, however, +finally led to the intervention of the Law, +and a decision by Lord Chief Justice +Mansfield, that a policy of assurance entered +into by a person holding no insurable +interest was against public interest.</p> + +<p>This dispute, which provoked a commotion +almost inconceivable to us, was concerned +with the sex of the Chevalier d’Eon. +We are apt to take historical events for +granted, neither marvelling at their strangeness +nor speculating upon the manner with +which contemporaries received them. Can +you imagine a Frenchman of distinction, +coming to England upon a confidential +mission, quarrelling with the Ambassador +of his country, accusing publicly this or +that statesman of treachery, and finally +arousing the most widespread doubts as +to whether he was a man or a woman? Yet +this very thing did happen to Charles<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</span> +Geneviève Louise Auguste d’Eon de Beaumont, +and we hardly need to be told +that the assurance brokers of the City +of London found this spicy problem +very much to their taste. Policies were +opened by which it was undertaken that, +on payment of fifteen guineas down, one +hundred should be returned whenever the +Chevalier was proved to be a woman. +The Chevalier, after some passing pretence +of indignation, graciously allowed, that at +a certain Coffee House, at the hour of noon, +he would satisfy all whom it might concern. +As may be easily imagined, the assurances +were immediately and greatly increased, +and there should be no reasonable doubt +that the Chevalier got in return for his +condescension what nowadays we should +call a “rake off.”</p> + +<p>At the appointed hour, the Chevalier +appeared in the uniform and the decorations +of an officer, and, claiming to belong to the +sex whose dress he wore, challenged anyone +present to disprove it with sword or cudgel.</p> + +<p>This was not the sort of solution of the +problem which commended itself to the +citizens of that day, and all the more, since<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</span> +the Chevalier was known to be remarkably +expert with the small sword. The crowd +of underwriters and brokers dissolved, leaving +the great question of the day unanswered. +An action was brought in the Court of +Lord Chief Justice Mansfield, who gave the +decision to which we have already referred. +An Act had already been passed that +insurance made on the life of any person +on the account of another who had no +interest in that life should be void. Lord +Chief Justice Mansfield laid it down that +the same principle should be held even when +the policy was not a policy on life.</p> + +<p>It is obvious that the system of insurance, +once it became general, would give opportunities +to the ingenious criminal. The +cases, however, of such frauds or such +attempted frauds are, comparatively to +the vast volume of insurance business done, +astonishingly few. Still fewer present those +conflicts of emotion—those struggles between +ill-assorted natures thrown together +in the jumble of life—which alone give +interest to the study of crime. Most of +the insurance frauds represent no more than +sordid efforts by mean men or women. One<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</span> +or two cases, however, do stand out by something +especial in the way of audacity or +imagination on the part of the chief +criminal.</p> + +<p>That of Thomas Griffith Wainwright is +probably the most remarkable. Wainwright +was a person of amazing vanity and +considerable good looks, who affected the +military style of dress which was the last +word of male fashion in the days when he +lived. You may read a description of the +man in Bulwer Lytton’s novel “Lucretia,” +where Wainwright postures as Gabriel +Verney. Postures is the word, for though +Wainwright was not without talents and +high abilities, to posture was the enjoyment +and ambition of his life. He contributed +articles to the “London Magazine” at a +time when Lamb, Barry Cornwall, Haslitt +and Alan Cunningham were the chief +contributors. Under the name of “Janus +Weathercock” he wrote on Art, the +Ballet and the Opera. He wrote in a +fashion which has become much more +common to-day than it was then: the +fashion, I mean, of creating first of all a +personality, through the eyes of which the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</span> +subjects to be reviewed are seen. The “Eye +Witness” whom Wainwright described to +the readers of the “London Magazine” +was, needless to say, himself, and he drew +the picture of himself with so loving a +pen, such luxuriant details of his elegant +dress, his fine appearance and his exquisite +manners, as would make the very effigy of +a coxcomb. That one might not misunderstand +his writings, he enforced them +with his pencil—he was an artist +of no small ability—and drew types of +female beauty in which “the voluptuous +trembled on the borders of the indelicate”—we +quote his own luscious +phrase. As you can imagine, he had no +high opinion of the artistic capabilities of +other men, and like all persons endowed +with so triumphant a vanity, he impressed +those more modest craftsmen who were +conscious of their imperfections. He fairly +took in Charles Lamb, for instance, who +spoke of him as kind and light-hearted.</p> + +<p>Never were two epithets so misapplied by +a man with a genius for insight, for “Janus +Weathercock” was a forger and had even +then murder in his mind. He ceased to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</span> +write. He went with his wife on a visit +to his uncle. After a short illness the uncle +died, and Wainwright inherited the property. +It was not nearly enough to satisfy this +high-flown gentleman’s needs. Moreover, +it was held by trustees, so that only the +interest reached his hands. He forged the +names of his trustees to a Power of Attorney +apparently with so much success, that +for a long while no suspicion was aroused. +He apparently forged five such documents, +but, even so, poverty was always at his +door.</p> + +<p>At what particular date he turned his +thoughts to the possibilities of insurance +we do not know, but it was in the year +1830 that the two young step-sisters of +his wife, Helene Frances Phœbe and +Madeline Abercrombie, began to haunt the +insurance offices of the City. Helene +Frances Phœbe wanted her life insured for +sums ranging from £2,000 to £3,000 for +periods of not longer than two to three +years. From office to office these young +ladies went, and they were actually able to +effect these insurance policies for an aggregate +amount of no less than £18,000. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</span> +policies once effected, Wainwright had +recourse to an ingenious device. Phœbe +gave out that she was going abroad and +made her will in favour of her sister, +Madeline, with Wainwright as the sole +executor. He would have, in the event of +Phœbe’s death, complete control over the +money paid by the Insurance Companies, +although he would not stand in the +suspicious position of one who had had +the money bequeathed to him by will. +He might still, of course, be suspected, but +he would be a long step further from +suspicion than if the crude method of leaving +the money to him had been adopted.</p> + +<p>There can be little doubt that Phœbe, +and probably Madeline too, under the +spell of this man’s ascendancy, were parties +to the plot—as they understood it. Phœbe +was to disappear on the Continent. By +means of forged papers Wainwright was +to prove her death, collect the insurance +money, and join her with the rest of the +family on the Continent. This was no +doubt the plan talked over of an evening +in those shabby furnished rooms in Conduit +Street to which the family had been now<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</span> +reduced. But this was merely the plan +by which Wainwright had secured the +help of the two young and attractive girls. +Unspoken, at the back of his mind, lay a +much more sinister project. The night +after Phœbe Abercrombie had settled her +affairs, she went to the theatre with the +rest of the family. A lobster supper followed +upon their return to their lodgings, +and in the night Phœbe was taken ill. +She died—Oh! prudent Mr. Wainwright!—at +a time when he was out walking with his +wife. The body was examined and a +certificate of death was issued by the doctor +in the ordinary way. Wainwright began +to demand his £18,000 from the various +Insurance offices. They declined to pay. +Wainwright left England and commenced +an action. But such a light did the Counsel +for the Insurance Company throw upon +Wainwright’s manœuvres that his claim +was rejected by the Jury. The Bank of +England apparently began now to look +into that little matter of the Power of +Attorney. Wainwright’s forgeries were discovered, +and Wainwright wisely preferred +to remain at Boulogne. He lodged there,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</span> +by the way, with an English officer whose +life he managed to insure for £5,000, and +after one premium had been paid the +English officer died. Wainwright seems +then to have wandered for a while in France. +He certainly was arrested by the French +police and imprisoned at Paris for six +months. Impelled by some interest of +which we do not know, he returned to +London for forty-eight hours; and during +those forty-eight hours he made the one +small fatal mistake which put an end to +his activities. He stayed in an hotel close +to Covent Garden, but, startled by some +disturbance in the street, he for a moment +drew the blind aside and looked out. By +one of those coincidences which are not so +uncommon as the pedantic would have +one to believe, there was a man passing +in the street who knew him. The passer-by +caught a glimpse of the face peeping out +from behind the blind and cried aloud +“That’s Wainwright, the bank forger.” +He was tried on a charge of forgery, sentenced +to transportation for life, and died +miserably, years afterwards, in Sydney.</p> +<hr class="full x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="c7">CHAPTER VII.</h2> +</div> + +<p class="c sp less">THE CORPORATION.</p> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span>N earlier chapter gave some account +of the origin and beginnings of the +Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation. +It would not be in keeping +with this note on the occasion of the +Bicentenary of the Corporation to enter +into those details of profits, advantages +and benefits, which are more suitable +to a prospectus. But certain landmarks +may well be noted.</p> + +<p>The year 1720 was, as we have seen, the +difficult year in the history of the Corporation. +It was the first year when the +Corporation worked under its new Charter, +and under its present name. It was the +one year of all its two hundred in which +for reasons which we have understood +it paid no dividend upon its stock. Yet, +during this one year of 1720, it gave such<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</span> +proofs of courage and vitality as must have +inspired all intimately interested in its +operations, with a very stout confidence; +for although the threat of disaster was at +the door, its Directors went blithely on +their way, organising the extension of its +business.</p> + +<p>In 1720 it absorbed the Sadler’s Hall +Company, which with a nominal capital +of two millions was unable to obtain a +Charter under which it could do business. +In 1721, the Royal Exchange Assurance +Corporation added to the Charter which +it already possessed, another, granting it +power to insure for life and against fire. +In 1721, it appointed its first agent. Let us +set down the actual date and record the +name of the man, the fore-runner of so many +thousands who were to carry on the torch, +each in his turn, through the next two +hundred years. On 22nd May, the Directors +appointed Mr. Palmer, of Ockingham, +in Berkshire, its agent.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" id="fig7"> +<a href="images/fig7big.jpg"> +<img src="images/fig7.jpg" alt="proof"> +</a> +<p class="caption">THE SECOND<br> +ROYAL EXCHANGE.</p> +<p class="caption">Proof of First Heading<br> +on Fire Policies, 1721.<br> +<span class="greentext">(click image to enlarge)</span></p> +</div> + +<p>After that day the Corporation set to +work very quickly to extend its agencies, +for on the 31st of the same month it agreed +to appoint “as many country postmasters +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</span>as are proper to be country correspondents”; +and by the next year, so widely +had the system been increased, that it +resolved, by a formal declaration, to undertake +no responsibility in any town of +America where it had not already an agent +appointed.</p> + +<p>The Corporation’s machinery for dealing +with fires was at this time, primitive as all +such arrangements then were. It appointed +one man whose business it was to fix the +firemarks upon the houses insured, and in +his odd times to run messages for the office. +The firemark itself was an object of some +discussion at the meetings of the Board. +It was too heavy, and it seems there was +too much gilding to satisfy the frugality of +the Directors. Mr. Spelman, the Fire Clerk, +was accordingly ordered to provide two +new samples from which the Directors +might choose; and he was especially +enjoined to inform the Committee of the +exact price of the mark “distinguishing +what the lead will cost and what the +gilding will come to.” It seems that the +unfortunate Mr. Spelman, even with this +sharp hint to remind him of his duties,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</span> +could not restrain his passion for gilding. +The Fire Committee accordingly took the +matter out of Mr. Spelman’s hands and +ordered “the Plumber that used to serve the +Company to make a model of the mark with +a large crown, and lay the expense before +the Committee.” The Plumber understood +his Committee better than Mr. Spelman, +and the Firemark with the large crown, +which to-day decorates some of the houses +originally insured under a policy with the +Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation, is +the very same mark which was designed in +1721 by that economical and understanding +plumber. Mr. Smith, who founded the +plumber’s design, received 14½d. for each +firemark. The ha’penny alone should have +been sufficient by the confidence which it +inspired in the economical management of +the Company to have brought hundreds of +annuitants on to those hone stones which +paved the second Royal Exchange as they +had done the first.</p> + +<p>To the one fireman and messenger combined +were shortly added others, and we +find in the year 1752 that thirty-six firemen, +nine porters and four carmen paraded the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</span> +West end of the town—it is to be supposed +as an advertisement for the Corporation. +It was the custom of those days to employ +as firemen, watermen who plied habitually +on the Thames. These were stout and +handy men, although since the Thames +was the general highway of London, it +looks as if their ordinary occupation must +have suffered. They wore the liveries of +their separate offices, and those employed +by the Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation +must have cut a fine figure when +they paraded the West end of the town, in +a livery of yellow lined with pink, with +music playing in front of them, and five +shillings in their pockets for their dinners. +The custom by which each separate insurance +company kept its own firemen was +a bad one in the public interest. For it +meant that if the house in flames bore the +firemark of a different company, the firemen +simply went home and left the building +burning. It was not until January 1866, +that the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, as we +know it, came into existence.</p> + +<p>The Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation +stands to-day its own evidence<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</span> +and justification. It was the first Insurance +Office to extend its work to the troubled +country of Ireland, where fires were more +than ordinarily common, for it opened its +first office in Abbey Street, Dublin, in the +year 1722: and it retains to-day by the +activity of its agents and the extension of +its business that pre-eminence which its +priority in time first gave to it. Of late +years it has undertaken much work which +in other days would have been deemed +quite outside the scope of an Insurance +Corporation. It was the first Insurance +Office in England to set up a Trustee +branch. This was in 1904, when as yet +there was no Public Trustee, and many a +legatee’s affairs were plunged into confusion +by the death or business inexperience of +an Executor. Thus, though not a philanthropic +institution, the Corporation has +pursued its business by beneficent means. +It has seen companies—such as that which +was originated by the famed Mr. Montague +Tigg—blaze for a moment in a false prosperity +and then disappear. It has remained +proud in its antiquity, faithful to its +traditions, and yet alert to each new<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</span> +development of the machinery of life +which could strengthen its foundations and +extend its influence. It has survived the +most momentous changes and the most +difficult crises in the national life of Great +Britain. Yes, but self-preservation is not +everything. For a Corporation to live for +two hundred years is very well in itself; +but to live at the end of that time amidst +the increasing confidence and good will of +those who have entrusted their interests +to its care is a greater matter of which the +Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation +may well be infinitely proud.</p> + +<p class="r large"> +<span class="smcap">A. E. W. Mason.</span><br> +</p> + + +<p class="c more"><span class="smcap">Jas. Truscott & Son, Ltd.</span>, London. E.C. +</p> + +<hr class="full"> + +<div class="transnote"> + +<p class="c">Transcriber’s Notes:</p> + +<p>Variations in spelling and hyphenation are retained.</p> + +<p>Perceived typographical errors have been changed.</p> + +</div> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75944 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/75944-h/images/cover.jpg b/75944-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cba4be5 --- /dev/null +++ b/75944-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/75944-h/images/fig1.jpg b/75944-h/images/fig1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..229e6ff --- /dev/null +++ b/75944-h/images/fig1.jpg diff --git a/75944-h/images/fig2.jpg b/75944-h/images/fig2.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4b0a44b --- /dev/null +++ b/75944-h/images/fig2.jpg diff --git a/75944-h/images/fig2big.jpg b/75944-h/images/fig2big.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..df1fc6f --- /dev/null +++ b/75944-h/images/fig2big.jpg diff --git a/75944-h/images/fig3.jpg b/75944-h/images/fig3.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d829079 --- /dev/null +++ b/75944-h/images/fig3.jpg diff --git a/75944-h/images/fig3big.jpg b/75944-h/images/fig3big.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e3a1291 --- /dev/null +++ b/75944-h/images/fig3big.jpg diff --git a/75944-h/images/fig4.jpg b/75944-h/images/fig4.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b0cf9d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/75944-h/images/fig4.jpg diff --git a/75944-h/images/fig4big.jpg b/75944-h/images/fig4big.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..11a48ed --- /dev/null +++ b/75944-h/images/fig4big.jpg diff --git a/75944-h/images/fig5.jpg b/75944-h/images/fig5.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6edca53 --- /dev/null +++ b/75944-h/images/fig5.jpg diff --git a/75944-h/images/fig5big.jpg b/75944-h/images/fig5big.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a24a83 --- /dev/null +++ b/75944-h/images/fig5big.jpg diff --git a/75944-h/images/fig6.jpg b/75944-h/images/fig6.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..32011f7 --- /dev/null +++ b/75944-h/images/fig6.jpg diff --git a/75944-h/images/fig6big.jpg b/75944-h/images/fig6big.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fd713ed --- /dev/null +++ b/75944-h/images/fig6big.jpg diff --git a/75944-h/images/fig7.jpg b/75944-h/images/fig7.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ed63260 --- /dev/null +++ b/75944-h/images/fig7.jpg diff --git a/75944-h/images/fig7big.jpg b/75944-h/images/fig7big.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8144a61 --- /dev/null +++ b/75944-h/images/fig7big.jpg |
