40 URUGUAY - INSURANCE AND THRIFT 



and " lya Rural ". The bank bought their paper on 9 July and 9 September 

 1913, for 10,000 and 16,000 pesos, respective^. 



The hail department was created in February 1912. As has been seen 

 the monopoly in this form of insurance was instituted at the end of 1913, 

 by means of the purchase of the paper of the private companies with which 

 paper business was begun. The first results obtained were certainly most 

 encouraging, the receipts of the hail department in the form of premiums 

 reaching in 1912 61 per cent, of the product of this branch of insurance in 

 the whole country, namely 47,463 pesos as against 30,000 pesos received 

 by the private companies. 



Tabi,e I. Business of the Hail Department from 1912 to 1915. 



Total 8,111,195 11,059 261,418 49,539 18.95 



This table shows the progress of the business of the hail department 

 from igi2 to 1915, inclusively. But it would be diflficult to estimate this 

 institution's activity onh' from these figures. Thus as regards 1912, this 

 year was, in the first place, that in which business was |)egun ; secondly 

 it was incomplete since the hail department was not founded until February; 

 and lastly it was that in which the monopoly of this branch of insurance did 

 not 3^et exist. After this monopoty was established in 1913 much 

 higher figures were reached. It would however be very risky to accept 

 the data for this year unreservedly as an index to the institution's activity 

 in the matter of hail insurance ; for it was in tliis year that the purchase 

 of the paper of the companies, of which we have spoken, was effected, and 

 the published statistics do not .specify what revenue was obtained by the 

 bank's department exclusively, and what emanated from these companies. 

 The data in question therefore evidently indicate larger sums than would 

 such as truly represented the department's activity in this 3'ear. The re- 

 sults obtaiued in 1914, the year of the application of the monopolj^ 

 which might have given us the normal level, are, on the contrary, furthest 

 removed from it. The table shows that the figures for 1914 have under- 

 gone a considerable reduction as compared with those of other years. The 



