INDUSTRY, INVENTION, COMMERCE 



665 



at the time of his death. Such policies, how- 

 ever, usually make an exception in the case of 

 death by suicide. By this means, a family may 

 be furnished with means of support in case of 

 the death of its head. According to general 

 practice, a life insurance is seldom made oy the 

 payment of a single sum at the time it is effected, 

 but almost always by the payment of an annual 

 premium during its continuance. An individual, 

 therefore, who has insured a sum on his own 

 life, would forfeit all the advantages of the in- 

 surance were he not to continue regularly to 

 make his periodical payments. Life insurance 

 is conducted by several kinds of societies; as 

 the proprietary, mutual insurance, and mixed so- 

 The proprietary, or joint-stock com- 

 panies, are formed of persons who have sub- 

 scribed a capital, on the insurance of which the 

 business of the company is carried on, and who 

 divide the profits entirely among themselves. 

 In the mutual insurance societies, on the other 

 hand, there is no proprietary, the assured being 

 likewise the assurers, and dividing the profits 

 among themselves, after deducting the expenses 

 of management, and reserving a guaranty fund. 

 In the mixed class of offices, which is the most 

 numerous in the United States, there is a pro- 

 prietary, but, at the same time, the assured are 

 allowed to participate largely in the profits of 

 the society, which are usually divided in the 

 form of bonuses at stated periods. The pre- 

 miums to be paid are adjusted according to the 

 age of the party on whose life the insurance is 

 made ; being lowest on young lives, and increas- 

 ing from year to year as the expectancy of life 

 diminishes. 



It is within the past sixty years that the vast 

 business of life insurance in the United States 

 has been developed. The experimental stage 



The following is the table of expectation of 

 life usually recognized by American life insur- 

 ance companies: 



EXPECTATION OF LIFE 



Interest is the allowance made for the loan 



or retention of a sum of money which is lent for, 



was ended and the era of advance was opened or becomes due at, a certain time; this allow- 

 when, in 1843, the Mutual Life Insurance Com- ' 

 pany of New York began business, its first policy 

 having been issued on February 1st of that year. 

 Since then a large number of life insurance corn- 

 have been established. The following 

 list includes those now transacting business 

 which had their inception between 1843 and 1860 

 inclusive, arranged according to the date of the 



issued: 



Mutual Life Insurance Company, 1843; New 

 England Mutual Life Insurance Company (1), 

 1M 1 ; New York Life Insurance Company, Mu- 

 tual Benefit Life Insurance Company, State 

 Mutual Life Assurance Company (3), 1845; 



ticut Mutual Life Insurance Company. 

 Perm Mutual Life Insurance Company, 



1'nion Mutual Life Insurance Company, 

 1849; National Life Insurance Company ot Ver- 

 in. .nt. I rnted States Life Insurance Company, 



Life Insurance Company, Manhattan Life 



ace Company, 1850; Massachusetts Mu- 

 mce Company, Pho?nix Mutual 



isiirance Company, Berkshire Life Insur- 

 ance Company (4), 1851; Northwestern Mutual 

 Life Insurance C 1858: Equital 



Assurance Society, 1859; Washington 1 

 surar.ce Compan ranee Com- 



pany. Qermania Life Insurance Company, 1860. 

 Mow lifr reaMQ since lin- 



early part of 1843 is shown in the subjoined 



ance being generally estimated at so much per 

 cent, per annum, that is, so much for the use of 

 $100 for a year. The money lent or forborne is 

 called the principal ; the sum paid for the use of 

 it, the interest. The interest of $100 for one 

 year is called the rate per crn/..and the sum of 

 I any principal and its interest together, the 

 I amount. Interest is either simple or compound. 

 Simple interest is that which is allowed upon the 

 principal only, for the whole time of the loan or 

 forbearance. Compound interest is that which 

 arises from any sum or principal in a given time 

 by increasing the principal, at fixed periods, by 

 the interest then dm*, and hence obtaining inter- 

 est upon both interest and principal. The rate 

 of interest, supposing the security for the prin- 

 cipal to be equal, depends obviously upon what 

 may be made by the employment Of money in 

 various industrious undertakings, or on the rate 

 of profit. Where pr inch, interest is 



high, and vice versa; in fact, the rate of interest 

 i> simply the net profit on capital. Besides this, 

 r. the interest on each particular loan 

 must further vary according to the supposed 

 risk of the lender, etc. Bills and notes, by the 

 Usage of trade, carry interest from the date they 

 due; such interest b. ing recoverable as 

 s but the jury are not bound to give 

 it. In the 1 nited States interest in generally 

 awarded by the courts on overdue debts. 



