ASSURANCE. 
corporation, by which they were distin- 
guished from a variety of schemes for every 
species of assurance then projected, most 
of which were of very short duration. The 
two companies just mentioned are the only 
corporate bodies authorized to make sea 
assurances, the principal part of this busi- 
ness, in London, being transacted by four 
or five hundred individual assurers or under- 
writers, who assemble daily for this purpose 
at Lloyd’s coffee-house, formerly in Lom- 
bard Street, but uow kept over the Royal 
Exchange. The premiums which they re- 
quire are regulated by the length or danger 
of the voyage, the condition of the vessel, 
the time of the year, and the country be- 
ing at peace or war ; of course they vary 
considerably at different periods. Thus, in 
time of peace, an assurance may be made 
from London to the East Indies, on the 
Company’s regular ships, at 6 or 7 guineas 
per otnt. out and home, which in time of 
war is advanced to 12 guineas per cent. 
At Hamburgh there, are about thirty 
companies for making sea assurances, two 
or three in Bremen, some in Lubeck and 
Trieste, and one even in Berlin and Bres- 
law ; there is also a chartered marine as- 
surance company at Stockholm, and one 
at Copenhagen ; their capitals, however, 
are not very considerable, and they never 
venture large sums on one risk. There are 
private underwriters at Stockholm, Gotten- 
burg, and Copenhagen, who assure mode- 
rate risks. At New York, Philadelphia, 
and many other principal towns in the Ame- 
rican states, assurance companies have been 
established ; and in the East Indies there 
are no less than five assurance offices at 
Calcutta, four or five at Madras, and one 
at Bombay ; but their business is not very' 
extensive, being principally confined to the 
assurance of the coasting trade in India, 
and the trade from India to China. 
Assurance against loss or damage from 
fire is a practice, the utility of which has 
become so generally evident, that it has of 
late years increased considerably. Dr. A. 
Smith, in 1775, supposed, that taking the 
whole kingdom at an average, 19 houses in 
20, or perhaps 99 in 100, w ere not insured 
from fire. But the case is now very dif- 
ferent, as there is scarcely any considerable 
town in England which has not in it either 
an office of its own, or agents from the 
London offices for effecting assurances. 
All kinds of property liable to be de- 
stroyed by fire, as houses and buildings 
of every description, household furniture, 
apparel, merchandize, utensils and stock in 
trade, farming stock, and ships in harbour 
or while building, may be assured at a fixed 
rate per cent . ; hut all kind of writings, ac- 
counts, notes, money, and gunpowder, are 
generally excepted. 
The offices distinguish the different risks 
of assurance against fire in the following 
manner : 
Common assurances are assurances on all 
manner of buildings, having the walls of 
brick or stone, and covered with slate, tile, 
or metal, wherein no hazardous trades are 
carried on, nor any hazardous goods depo- 
sited ; and on goods and merchandizes, not 
hazardous, in such buildings. The premium 
on such assurances is 2s. per cent, per annum. 
Hazardous assurances are assurances on 
timber or plaster buildings, covered with 
slate, tile, or metal, wherein no hazardous 
trades are carried on, nor any hazardous 
goods deposited ; and on goods or merchan- 
dizes, not hazardous, in such timber or plas- 
ter buildings ; and also on hazardous trades, 
such as cabinet and coach makers, carpen- 
ters, coopers, bread and biscuit bakers, 
ship and tallow chandlers, soap-makers, inn- 
holders, sail-makers, maltsters, and stable- 
keepers, carried on in brick or stone build- 
ings, covered with slate, tile, or metal ; 
and on hazardous goods, such as hemp, flax, 
rosin, pitch, tar, and turpentine, depo- 
sited in such buildings ; the stock in trade 
of apothecaries, also on ships, and all man- 
ner of water-craft, in harbour, in dock, or 
while building, and on thatched buildings, 
which have not a chimney, and which do 
not adjoin to any building having a chim- 
ney. The charge for this class of assurance 
is 3s. per cent, per annum. 
Doubly-liazardous assurances are assu- 
rances on any of the aforesaid hazardous 
trades carried on, or hazardous goods de- 
posited, in timber or plaster buildings, co- 
vered with slate, tile, or metal ; on glass, 
china, and earthen ware ; also on thatched 
buildings or goods therein, (except as in 
the preceding class) and on saltpetre, with 
the buildings containing the same. Such 
assurances are usually charged 5s. per cent, 
per annum. 
Assurances on jewels, plate, medals, 
watches, prints not in trade, pictures, draw- 
ings, and statuary work ; also assurances to 
cotton-spinners and all other manufacturers 
of raw cotton ; to distillers, flambeaux and 
varnish makers; to oil, Spermacaeti, wax, 
or sugar refiners; to boat-builders, cork- 
cutters, japanners, cojourmen, rppe-makers 
