1011 



TABLE. 



TABLE. 



employed till 1700, when Beutley introduced 10 per cent, tables j but 

 the " greediness for present Beating money " compelled a return to 

 the old system. Dr. Smith, in 17I-, [.-introduced the 10 ]> 

 table*, which became 9 per cent, in 1750. Newton's table in published 

 in the 'Journal of the Institute of Actuaries' for January, 1881, 

 vol. U., No. 42. 0. 1093, London : W. Leybourn, ' Panarithj 

 . ... all performed )<y tables ready cast up ; ' ready-reckoner, multiple* 

 of prices, 4o. D. 170", London: .l.'lm Snurt. 'Tallies of Simple 

 Interest .... also Tables of Compound Interest;' the first edition 

 of these celebrated tables. D. 171". London : .i..|m Castaing, 'An 

 Interest Book . . . ;' interest per year reduced to days by tables. 

 0. 1711, London: E. Uatton, 'An Index to Interest;' units, tens, and 

 hundreds of pounds principal, reduced to interest for each number of 



days in the year. ]>. 1718, : Oeo. Brown, ' Arithmetica Infinita;' 



all farthings under one pound reduced to decimals, with the tir.-t nine 

 multiples of each (the whole in e : the figures very rough, 



as if put in by the author's own hand). Q. 1726, London : John Smart, 

 ' Tables of Interest, Discount. Annuities ; ' the second edition, an 1 the 

 best. I>. 172>;, London : Richard Hayes, ' The Money'd Man's Guide;' 

 tables of dividends on sums proceeding by eighths of a pound, at 

 per cent. 



1). 17;i"i, London : Gael Morris, 'Tables for Renewing and Pur- 

 chasiug Leases . . . ; ' and, with another title-page, tables of simple 



t fur years, mouths, and days. 0. 1735, London: James I."-t >u, 

 ' The Manual Mercantile Second Book ; ' the first never published. 

 This book is 450 pages of copper-plate ; the descriptions, &c., in a pro- 

 fessional handwriting ; all the table-work in the roughest figure, as if 

 put in by the author for security against error. First nine multiple* 

 ot numbers up to 1609; reciprocals to seven significant!), and first 

 nine multiples, up to 1535; numbers advancing by eighths of a unit, 

 .-.n-l their nine multiples in decimals from 100 to 140, and then 

 by fourths to 156; reciprocals of the same, with nine multiples; 

 pence and farthings in decimals of a pound, with eight and after- 

 wards seven significants, with nine multiples, up to HOtl. ; the 

 number of times pence and eighths ore contained in a pound, in 

 decimals, with first nine multiples, up to 1 10</. ; a mass of tables for 

 exchange, commission, reduction of weights and measures, &c. &c., all, 

 or most, having results expressed in decimals, with nine multiples of 

 each. ii. 17;J' : , London : John Smart, ' Tables of Interest ;' the large 

 tallies abridged into a school-book. 0. 1756, London (19th edition) : 

 John 1'layford, ' Vade iiiceum ; ' ready-reckoner of the modern type. 



O. 1756, London: ,' New Sett of Interest Tables;' small tables, 



followed by tables of excise on beer and ale, printed on one side only, 

 apparently to allow pasting on a wall, and ' designed for a check on the 

 custom-house and excise officer.-.' 



D. 1759, London: Beuj. Webb, 'Tables for buying and selling 

 Stocks ; ' the chief table is one of numbers increasing by eighths, given 

 in decimals, with nine multiples to each, from 60 to 130 ; and their 

 reciprocals in the same way. D. 1762, London : Benj. Webb, ' Com- 

 plete Annuitant ; ' collection of tables subsidiary to interest, not easy 

 l.rietly. 1). 1706, London (14th ed. ; 16th in 177">): 

 Richard Hayes, ' Interest at one view ; ' interest in the form of the 

 ready-reckoner for mouths and days. 0. 1773, Amsterdam : Nicolas 

 ;iw ; ' an edition of the celebrated French ready- 



r, which, like ours, consists of multiples of sums of money. 

 The name of Barretne (so spelt in the licence, though now Biu-tme) is 

 ingrafted on the French language as a word for mercantile calculation. 

 Our Ccker * is a jesting allusion ; but Bar/Sine is quite a serious word. 

 . Rene" Neron, ' Comptes-faits t pour les changes;' 

 exchanges between different countries, in the ready-reckoner form. 

 is : Blavier, ' Nouveau Bareme ; ' adapted to the change of 

 coinage. Q. 170", London : John Wilson, ' Tables to facilitate the 

 computation of Interest;' containing the proportion of -05 for each 

 number of days in the year, with multiples of each fraction up to 100, 

 to nine decimals. All calculations are made for five per cent., and 

 afterwards reduced to the rate given : a very common principle of 

 tables. O. 1804, London : b. Newman, ' Collection of Mercantile 

 Tables ; ' the ready-reckoner (or multiple) principle adapted to prices, 



* We have endeavoured to find the reason why Cocker, or rather the book 

 which Hawkins pnt out in Cocker's name, should be selected as the type of 

 commercial arithmetic. We trace the alluvion to 1766, and no farther back. 

 In that year Arthur Mnrphy's farce of 'The Apprentice' appeared, in which 

 the old merchant Wingalt is perpetually eulogising Onckrr't arithmetic. 

 \Vinate and Cocker were two of the best-known books on arithmetic. If the 

 allusion cannot be carried farther back, then the probability will be that 

 Mirphy took the names of the arithmeticians with whom he most often came in 

 contact, and used them as described. In that case Winsratc would hare been 

 our Cocker, if Murphy bad chosen to make Cocker bis Wingato ; and Wingate 

 much better deserved the distinction. 



f Dedicated to the Duke of Lorraine, in Terse, which ends as follows : 



Grand Prince, sois propice a ma juste demandc, 

 Ue mon petit travail daigne accepter rotiramlc, 

 M, .ontunt d'Apollon le stile f.umlic:, 

 nct-moi de me dire en stile regular 

 MonMigneur, 



De T6tn Altttsso Buyalc, 

 Le ires-humble, trcs-obciuant, 

 et tres-rtspectueux Serviteur, 

 NIKON. 



lengths, interest, &c. 0. 1807, London : Francis Baily, ' Tables for 

 . . . Leases' (socond edition; first in 1802) : the first sep > 

 tables of leases of the modern form. Q. 1808, London : I 1 '. Huh . 

 'octrine of Interest and Annuities;' a well-knosvii work, the 

 -mart. D. 1811, London : Wm. ID wood, ' Tables for . . . 

 Estates . . . and Leases;' the idea, and some of the tables, from Kuly. 

 O. 1816, Calcutta : G. M. Anderson, 'The Universal Calculator;' a 

 large ready reckoner for prices, exchanges, interest, weights ami mei- 

 sures, &e. < '. 1 vJ.~.. London : Fr. Corbaux, ' The Doctrine of Conn. 

 Interest ; ' tables, with a large introduction of half and quarter rates of 

 interest; the added to the author'- V.-.T!, mi 



1833, 8vo. 0. 1839, London : Peter Hardy, ' Doctrine of Simp 1 

 Compound Interest;' tables, with half and quarter rates of in 1 

 0. 1841, London: Geo. Reid, 'Tables of Exchange;' in the 

 reckoner form, relating entirely to sterling and dollars. D. 

 London: 1 'avid Allester, 'Table of Simple Interest, comprised in one 

 page;' this page has an arrangement by which each day is shown at 

 five per cent., with its nine multiples. O. 1847, London : D. A! 

 ' Decimal Dividend Tables ; ' the basis consisting of shillings and | m> 

 in decimals of a pound, with the hundred mull i 



London: James Laurie, ' The Golden Ready-Reckoner; ' ready-reckoner 

 by multiples of one share at pounds and sixteenths per .-li.-uv. ( I. 1 >,17, 

 London: C. M. Willich, 'Interest and Time Commutation Tables;' 

 conversion of five per cent, into any other practical rate by inxpi > -ti m ; 

 and conversion of days to run into days which give the same at live 

 per cent. D. 1859, Edinburgh : W. Waterston, ' Manual of Commerce ' 

 (2nd edition) ; a ready-reckoner, combined with interest, dividen 

 tables, and information of many kinds. 0. 1859, London : I 

 Thoman, 'Theory of Compound Interest;' a new disposition <if the 

 subject, the tobies being the logarithms of amounts, and the logarithms 

 of annuities which one pound will purchase. D. 1859, Halifax : 

 ' Nicholson's Ready-Reckoner ; ' a good specimen of a class of sixpenny 

 IMI. >ks which are now common. 



We cannot pretend to give a technical list of life assuraii' 

 annuity tables : anything we could do in this way, in any space we 

 could give, would be professionally useless, and otherwise worse than 

 uninstructive. We may, however, attempt to point out and to illus- 

 trate an epoch of activity which commenced about the year 1> I", and 

 which still continues. In the year 1838, the chief of the 

 tables were in the well-known works of Price, Morgan, Baily, Milne. 

 Griffith Davies, and Finlaison. The extent of table i prac- 



ticable, went as far as annuities on two lives, for all ages differing by 

 multiples of five years, at 3, 4, 5, and 6 per cent. Barrett's in 

 the greatest augmentation of resources which was ever created on this- 

 subject by any one person, was not in use for want of sufficient appli- 

 cation to acknowledged rates of mortality. Milne's book best repre- 

 sents the laborious character of many computations which are now 

 either reduced to insignificance, or themselves actually tabulated for 

 reference. This valuable work (1815) was published by the author at 

 his own expense, and with a certainty of heavy loss ; and no public 

 acknowledgment of his merit was made, even when it had I 

 apparent that he had changed the basis of life-tables, and introduced 

 an important reformation by the only efficient means the construction 

 of a body of tables competing in extent with those already in u 

 beyond challenge as to accuracy of computation. Barrett's method is 

 nott noticed by Milne in this work ; but it only appeared in IJaily's 

 Appendix of 1813, and Milne could hardly have had time, occiij 

 he must have been with lu's own work, to have thoroughly examined 

 it, much less seriously contemplated the use of it. 



The impulse was given by the Useful Knowledge .Society i\vho how- 

 ever had a colleague, as we shall see), when they brought forw; 

 David Jones, and recommended, almost insisted on, a very J considerable 



* A case arose out of this work which illustrates the varying decisions which 

 prevail in the courts when a single judge decides questions of fact. f',.ily 

 applied for an injunction against a work in which he held his own work to 

 have been pirated, lie produced his own original calculations; and proved 

 that all the misprints and errors of the last figure, by the score, which occurred 

 in the parts of his work in question, occurred also in the alleged piracy. But 

 he could not satisfy the court that a piracy had been committed : he happened 

 to light upon a judge who would have thought it might have been a coincidence, 

 if he had seen his own name growing in mustard and cress. Persons who have 

 reason to fear that their tables will be pirated should lay some special traps for 

 detection : many might easily be suggested. 



f Milne has made it apparc nt, in his work, that be had had some difference 

 with Baily, who is not alluded to by name, but only by such phrases as "the 

 last author who has treated on this subject." There certainly had been pome dis- 

 agreement. The .Sun lire office became also a life ollkc in 1810, and Baily was 

 then consulted by the directors : we suspect that the disagreement, whatever it 

 was, then took place. But by the time Milne published his article on annuities 

 in the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana (of which the private copies are dated 

 1337) much of this fooling had worn off. Daily's name is mentioned, and his 

 merits arc judiciously, though coldly, acknowledged : but Milne was not 

 itiven to strong praise; he neither blew his ou n trumpet, nor that of anybody 

 else. Of Harrett's method Milne thought highly. Having more ti.an mice 

 heard it suspected that ho was averse to its use, we give an extract from a 

 letter of his to the writer of this article, dated Kov. 17, 1841, while Jones's 

 work was in progress of publication in numbers. " .Many thanks .... for the 

 Companion to the Almanac of the Useful Knowledge Society, to which truly 

 useful society we aro also indebted for Mr. Jones's tables, which will greatly 

 facilitate calculations.'* 



| We speak from positive knowledge. Mr. Jones, though no way disinclined 



