LIFE INSURANCE AS A SCIENCE 227 



in conformity to the principles of association. Walford, in his work 

 on Gilds, and Toulmin Smith, in his great work on English Gilds, 

 with the introduction by Brentano, are indispensable sources of 

 information to the student who would rightly understand the 

 foundations upon which the present massive structure of insurance 

 rests. 



But other materials of great value are readily available to the 

 student of insurance and economic history. The great work of 

 Walford, unhappily not completed beyond the letter H in the Insur- 

 ance Cyclopaedia, published between 1871 and 1880, is a monumental 

 work of human industry and learning. Of more recent works on 

 insurance history I may mention Martin's History of Lloyds and 

 Marine Insurance in Great Britain, published in 1876; the century 

 History of the Insurance Company of North America, published in 

 1885; the semi-centennial History of the New York Life Insurance 

 Company, published in 1896; the quarter-century History of the 

 National Fire Insurance Company of Hartford, published in 1897; the 

 century History of the Norwich Union Fire Society, published in 1898; 

 the History of the Prudential Insurance Company of America, pub- 

 lished in 1900, and finally the half-century History of the Springfield 

 Fire and Marine Insurance Company, published in 1901. I must also 

 not fail to mention a reprint of Documents Relating to the Early 

 History of the Scottish Widows' Fund and Life Assurance Society, 

 published in 1901. The student of economic history and economic 

 institutions will find much of value in these volumes which will aid 

 him towards a more correct interpretation of the factors which have 

 made for social progress during the nineteenth century. 



Any effort to trace the origin and growth of insurance must 

 necessarily take into account the development of navigation and 

 commerce during the last three hundred years. Evidence is not 

 wanting that even among the nations of antiquity marine insurance 

 in some form or other was not wholly unknown. Park and others 

 have traced the beginnings of marine insurance to very early periods, 

 but it has remained for the last three centuries to develop the system 

 to its present state of universal utility. Even the most casual study 

 of the history of navigation and commerce reveals the immense ad- 

 vantages resulting from the practice of marine and fire insurance. 

 In the words of M'Culloch: "Without the aid that it affords, com- 

 paratively few individuals would be found disposed to expose their 

 property to the risk of long and hazardous voyages; but by its means 

 insecurity is changed for security, and the capital of the merchant 

 whose ships are dispersed over every sea and exposed to all the 

 perils of the ocean is as secure as that of the agricultural risk. He 

 can combine his measures and arrange his plans as if they could no 

 longer be affected by accident. He has purchased an exemption 



