224 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 282. 



COMMERCIAL QUJBEIES : BANKING AND INSUR- 

 ANCE (1538—1657). 



1. Can any of your readers oblige by a biogra- 

 phical note as to John Yonge, who, as a new- 

 year's gift, in the first year of the reign of " the 

 most excellent and vertuous Princesse Elizabeth, 

 by the Grace of God, Quene of Englande, Fraunce, 

 and Irelande, Defendresse of the Faieth," &c. (so 

 runs the Dedication), presented to her majesty 

 a memoir which he entitled A Discourse for a 

 Bancke of Many to be estahlished for the Relief of 

 the Comon Necessitie. I have the late Mr. George 

 Chalmers's MS. transcript. Where is the original ? 



2. Mr, Samuel Lambe, " of London, Merchant," 

 printed a folio pamphlet in January, 1658, entitled 

 Seasonable Observations humbly offered to his 

 Highness the Lord Protector. It contains some 

 very practical suggestions on the establishment of 

 a bank ; and for this reason, and on account of its 

 date being prior to Potter's, as well as to Lewis's 

 and Paterson's writings on banking, it deserves 

 rescue from oblivion. Lambe also offered his re- 

 marks " on the usefulness and necessity of in- 

 creasing the trading-shipping of England," and 

 some statements which are interesting as evidence 

 of the then condition of Marine Insurance in 

 London. Inter alia, he mentions grounds for re- 

 commending the appointment of a Court of Mer- 

 chants in the city, " to end and determine all con- 

 troversies arising from one merchant to another," 

 and advises as follows : 



" But in case such a Court be not approved to be settled, 

 then the Court of Insurance sittinr/ in the Insurance Office, 

 who are yearly chosen, may have power to determine all 

 such matters, as they do causes of Insurance ; which will 

 much quicken and incourage trade, to the inriching and 

 strengthening the English nation." 



The Court of Insurance here alluded to was 

 established under the statute concerning " Matters 

 of Assurance amongst Merchants" (43 Elizabeth, 

 c. 12., amended by 13 & 14 Charles II., c. 23.). 

 This statute provided for the Lord Chancellor's 

 award under the Great Seal of England, of a 

 standing Commission ; to be renewed yearl}'- at 

 least, for the hearing and determining of causes 

 arising on policies of assurance entered within the 

 office of assurances in London ; which Commission 

 shall be directed unto the judge of the admiralty, 

 the recorder of London, two doctoi-s of the civil 

 law, two common lawyers, and eight discreet mer- 

 chants, or to any five of them. 



Thomas Mun, the author of England's Treasure 

 by Forraign Trade, the first edition of which was 

 published by his son John Mun of Bearsted, in 

 1664 (a work of considerable importance in the 

 history of commercial principles, and supposed to 

 have been written about 1630), places a know- 

 ledge of the rules of the office amonfj the chief 



qualities which are required In a " perfect mer- 

 chant of foreign trade : " 



" He ought," sa,vs he (p. 7.), « to know upon what rates 

 and conditions to fraight his ships, and ensure his ad- 

 ventures from one country to another; and to be well 

 acquainted with the laws, orders, and customs of the 

 Ensurance Office both here and beyond the seas, in the 

 many accidents which may happen upon tlie damage or 

 loss of ships or goods, or both these." 



^ This Court of Insurance has long been discon- 

 tinued, although the statutes concerning it of 

 Elizabeth and Charles II, are still In forc'e (vide 

 Tyrwhitt and Tyndale, and Report of Commis- 

 sioners on the Corporation of London, 1854). 



Query, Can any reference be given to a printed 

 or MS. copy of the laws, orders, and customs of 

 the Insurance office, from 1601 to the end of the 

 seventeenth century ? 



3. Lambe's pamphlet appears (at least from my 

 copy of it) to have had no title-page. It has, 

 however, a colophon : 



" Printed at the Author's charge for the Use and Bene- 

 fit of the English Nation, and to be considered of and put 

 in Execution as the High Court of Parliament in their 

 great Wisedomes shall think meet. January 19, 1657. 

 And are to be sold by William Hope, on the back side of 

 the Exchange." 



This date Is In the modern division of the year 

 1658 ; and a few weeks previously our author had 

 petitioned Cromwell, and the result was the fol- 

 lowing minute : 



« Whitehall, December 28'^, 1657. — His Highness, 

 upon the tender of this petition, and the book thei-ein 

 mentioned, is pleased to refer the petition and the book 

 with the petitioner's proposalls, to the consideration of the 

 Committee for the East India Company, or to any three 

 or more of them, to certifie their opinions concerning 

 the same to his Highness with convenient speed, what 

 therein they may conceive to be advantageous for the 

 furtherance of trade, and service of the State, and for 

 encouraging the petitioner in his intentions. 



" (Signed) Francis Bacon." 



." Sir Christopher Pack, Alderman William Thomson, 

 Aid. Frederick, Aid. Noell, and Mr. Vincent, or any three 

 of tliem, were desired to consider of and give answer to a 

 reference from his Highness, on the petition of Mr. Samuel 

 Lamb. (Signed) Jo. Stanyan. 



" Br. Court, Dec. 30*^, 1657.' 



" At the East India House." 



Query, Is the report on this reference extant ? 

 Fred. Hendrick. 



BACON QUERIES. 



If you or any of your readers can solve the fol- 

 lowing difficulties, you will extremely oblige. 



1. Bacon says that the Spaniards call the phos- 

 phorescence of the sea Pulmo Marinus (Nov. 

 Org.w. xii. 11.). What Is the Spanish phrase? 

 Darwin, in speaking of the phenomenon, says of 

 it, " One is almost tempted to call it a kind of 

 respiration." 



