NOTICES OF SOME RECENT PUBLICATIONS CONCERNING 

 INSURANCE AND THRIFT. 



ITALY. 



MAGAIyDI (V.) : L'Istituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni. Extract from the Rassegna d'Assi- 

 curazione e Previdenza Sociale, 3'^ year, 16 July 1916, 16 pages. 



In this interesting pamphlet the author, who for many years has so 

 competent!}' filled the office of General Director of Credit and Thrift in the 

 Ministry of Agriculture, Industrj^ and Commerce, shows that insurance 

 — and especially Ufe insurance — has everj-where greatlj^ developed, and 

 that State intervention has seemed necessar\' for the regulation of its 

 conditions. The legitimate nature of such intervention follows on the fact 

 that free competition does not suffice to prevent the constitution of insurance 

 enterprises which do not technically reach the standard of today and 

 which, by their lack of frankness or even of good faith, cause bitter disap- 

 pointments to the insured persons and thus impede the growth of thrift. 

 Moreover insurance institutions need careful watching, for they accumu- 

 late large capitals which in truth represent the savings of individuals. In 

 Europe the point has not been reached of creating by law pubHc institu- 

 tions charged to insure individuals, save in the case of several tentative 

 efforts, as in Bavaria where b}^ the law of 13 February 1884 a pubUc State 

 institution was formed to insure against damage by hail, and in Switzerland 

 where the compulsory insurance against fire is exercised under the rule of 

 the State monopoly. In Itah' a typical example of institutions of this kind 

 is given by the Istituto nazionale delle assicurazioni, formed by the law of 

 4 April 1 91 2. This institution enjoys the conditions of a monopoly and 

 practises life insurance in every possible form, the authorization given 

 to private firms, which were legally practising such insurance on 31 De- 

 cember 1911, to continue their activity for ten years from the date of the 

 said law being safeguarded. This national institution, of which this 

 pamphlet makes clear the most saHent characteristics, began work on i 

 January 1913, when it insured capital of the value of 800 million francs, 

 ceded to it by the various ItaHan and foreign companies which had ceased 

 to operate in Italy. 



