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"1. It is ordained, that all the members shall swear by the holy reliques that they will be faithful to each of their fellow-members, as well as in religious as in worldly matters; and that, in all disputes, they will always take part with him that has justice on his side.

"2. When any member shall die, he shall be carried by the whole Society to whatever place of interment he shall have chosen; and whoever shall not come to assist in bearing him shall forfeit a sextarium of honey: the Society making up the rest of the expense, and furnishing each his quota towards the funeral entertainment; and also, secondly, for charitable purposes, out of which as much as is meet and convenient is to be bestowed upon the church of St. Etheldred.

"3. When any member shall stand in need of assistance from his fellow-members, notice thereof shall be given to the Reeve or Warden who dwells nearest that member, unless that member be his immediate neighbour; and the Warden, if he neglect giving him relief, shall forfeit one pound. In like manner, if the President of the Society shall neglect coming to his assistance, he shall forfeit one pound, unless he be detained by the business of his lord or by sickness.

"4. If any one shall take away the life of a member, his reparatory fine shall not exceed eight pounds; but if he obstinately refuse to make reparation, then shall he be prosecuted by and at the expense of the whole Society: and if any individual undertake the prosecution, then each of the rest shall bear an equal share of the expenses. If, however, a member who is poor kill any one, and compensation must be made, then, if the deceased was worth 1200 shillings, each member shall contribute half a mark; but if the deceased was a hind, each member shall contribute two orae; if a Welchman, only one.

"5. If any member shall take away the life of another member, he shall make reparation to the relations of the deceased, and besides make atonement for his fellow-member by a fine of eight pounds, or lose his right of fellowship to the society. And if any member, except only in the presence of the king, or bishop, or an alderman, shall eat or drink with him who has taken away the life of a fellow-member, he shall forfeit one pound, unless he can prove, by the evidence of two witnesses on oath, that he did not know the person.

"6. If any member shall treat another member in an abusive manner, or call him names, he shall forfeit a quart of honey; and if he be abusive to any other person, who is not a member, he shall likewise forfeit a quart of honey.

"7. If any member, being at a distance from home, shall die or fall sick, his fellow-members shall send to fetch him, either alive or dead, to whatever place he may have wished, or be liable to the stated penalty; but if a member shall die at home, every member who shall not go to fetch his corpse, and every member who shall absent himself from his obsequies, shall forfeit a sextarium of honey."

These rules might have been certified by a Pratt, so simple and so excellent is their arrangement. But they must not be regarded as exceptional. The following form a portion of the regulations of another similar society at Exeter:--

"1. At each meeting every member shall contribute two sextaria of barley meal, and every knight one, together with his quota of honey.

"2. When any member is about to go abroad, each of his fellow-members shall contribute five pence; and if any member's house is burnt, one penny.

"3. If any one should by chance neglect the stated time of meeting, his regular contribution to be doubled."

Well may Mr. Ansell say, "The guilds or social corporations of the Anglo-Saxons seem, on the whole, to have been friendly associations, made for mutual aid and contribution, to meet the pecuniary exigencies which were perpetually arising." Nor can the reader fail to be struck with the resemblance these rules bear to those of many of the modern societies; and, as they were framed 800 years ago, the similitude is somewhat remarkable. After the Conquest guilds were established for the express promotion of religion, charity, or trade, and from these fraternities the various companies and city corporations have arisen. The following, forming a portion of the rules of St. Catherine's Guild, seem like those of some modern fraternity:--

"If a member suffer from fire, water, robbery, or other calamity, the guild is to lend him a sum of money without interest.

"If sick or infirm, through old age, he is to be supported by his guild according to his condition.

"If a member falls into bad courses, he is first to be admonished, and if found to be incorrigible he is to be expelled.

"Those who die poor, and cannot afford themselves burial, are to be buried at the charge of the guild."

Societies like these, established at a period when

"The good old rule, the simple plan, That they should take who have the power, And they should keep who can,"

was almost the law of the land, cannot fail to surprise those who believe that the past was an age of barbarism, and the present the culminating point of civilisation. It is certainly a curious truth, that that combination which has been esteemed a peculiar feature of modern times, had its antetype in societies framed when commerce and law were yet in their infancy.

Of the rise of assurance generally in Europe the information is limited enough. Malynes and Anderson say it was known about the year 1200, and refer to the marine laws of the isle of Oleron; but a perusal of these has satisfied later writers that the theory was too hastily adopted, and that the earliest ordinance on the subject with which we are acquainted is that of the magistrates of Barcelona, in 1523, to which city must be attributed the honour, until some authentic evidence to the contrary has been produced; and we must not omit to notice, also, that a writer on the "Us et Coutumes de la Mer" says assurance was long detested by the Christians, "being classed by them with the unpardonable sin of taking interest."

The first English statute relating to marine assurance was passed in 1601. The earliest mention of it occurs in 1548, in a letter written by the Protector Somerset to his brother the Lord Admiral, and that it was commonly known in 1558 may be gathered from a speech of the Lord Keeper Bacon. In the act alluded to above, "An Act concerning Matters of Assurances among Merchants," it is stated, that "it hath been time out of mind an usage among merchants, both of this realm and of foreign nations, when they make any great adventure, specially into remote parts, to give some consideration of money to other persons, to have from them assurance made of their goods, merchandises, ships, and things adventured, or some parts thereof, at such rates and in such sort as the parties assurers and the parties assured can agree; which course of dealing is commonly called a policy of assurance, by means of which policies of assurance it cometh to pass, upon the loss or perishing of any ship, there followeth not the loss or undoing of any man, but the loss lighteth rather easily upon many than heavily upon few, and rather upon them that adventure not than on those that do adventure."

If mercantile or marine assurance were so common, it is difficult to imagine that some approximation to life assurance, however imperfect or normal it might be, was entirely unpractised. It must necessarily have occurred to the captain of a trading vessel, that the storm or the whirlwind, which might send his merchandise to the bottom of the sea, might also send himself with it; and the thought that, if his goods were worth insuring for the benefit of the owners, his own life was worth insuring for the benefit of his family, arose naturally from the risks he ran. And in those days there was not merely a risk of storm or whirlwind. Man was more cruel than the tempest; and the galleys of the Turks were then as much feared, by the masters of trading vessels, as the corsairs of the Algerine were dreaded at a later period. They roved the seas as if they were its masters; they took the vessels, disposed of the cargo in the nearest market, and sold the navigators like cattle. The only way of mitigating this terrible calamity was by some mode of insurance, to procure their rescue if taken; and we find that to attain so desirable a result they paid a certain premium to their merchant freighters, who, in return, bound themselves to pay a sufficient sum to secure the navigators' freedom within fifteen days after the certificate of their captivity, the ordinary days of grace being lessened on such policies.

In those days, also, when crusades were common, and men undertook pilgrimages from impulse as much as from religion, it was desirable that the palmer should perform his vow with safety, if not with comfort. The chief danger of his journey was captivity. The ballads of the fifteenth century are full of stories which tell of pilgrims taken prisoners, and of emirs' daughters releasing them; but as the release by Saracen ladies was more in romance than in reality, and could not be calculated on with precision, a personal insurance was entered into, by which, in consideration of a certain payment, the assurer agreed to ransom the traveller, and thus the palmer performed his pilgrimage as secure from a long captivity as money could make him. It is true, that this care for his personal safety may detract somewhat from a high religious feeling; but truth is sadly at variance with sentiment, and the pilgrims of the crusading period were but too glad to lessen the chances against them.

Another mode of assurance was commonly practised, by which any traveller departing on a long or dangerous voyage deposited a specific amount in the hands of a money broker, on condition that if he returned he should receive double or treble the amount he had paid; but, in the event of his not returning, the money broker was to keep the deposit, which was in truth a premium under another name.

In 1643 Captain John Bulmer published, "Propositions in the Office of Assurance, London, for the blowing up of a boat and a man over London Bridge." Nor was this an unusual mode of conducting an enterprise which was at once ingenious and costly, and which required an union of capital to support it. In the address above alluded to, Bulmer, an unsuccessful engineer, pledged himself to perform his promise within a month after intimating from the office that he was ready; "viz. so soon as the undertakers wagering against him, six for one, should have deposited enough to pay the expenses of boat and engine," he also subscribing his own proportion. The money was not to be paid until the Captain had performed his contract, when he was to receive it all. If, however, he should fail, it was to be repaid to the subscribers. "And all those that will bring their money into the office shall there be assured of their loss or gain, according to the conditions above named."

These facts are an evidence that the principle of assurance was making way, and that men endeavoured to provide against the chances or mischances of life, to the best of their ability. Thus, any seafaring person proceeding on a voyage, could insure his life for the benefit of his heirs; and if the information which has come down to us limits the practice to this particular class, it was because seamen were the chief visitors to foreign countries, and for them some such plan was essentially a necessity.

But there was a further and more remarkable fact in operation; as an annuitant enjoying a life-rent or pension could make an insurance on his life, by way of provision for his family. These, however, were only exceptional cases, for which the premiums were probably distressingly heavy; if we may judge from the fact, that a century later the life of a healthy man, of any age, was estimated at only seven years' purchase. The great merchants of that day were chiefly responsible for such assurances, and many of the corporations engaged in these and similar adventures. The following will show that by 1569 the provident societies of the present day were anticipated. The writer is illustrating his opinion on usury.

But though these things are evidences of something closely akin to the principles of life assurance, it is certain that no system existed by which so happy a result could be habitually attained. The state of society was opposed to it. Life was then scarce "worth a pin's fee." The noble was at the mercy of his own fierce passions, and, if not engaged in some intestine warfare, was crossing and recrossing seas, was making or unmaking kings. The knight sought dangerous adventures with an avidity which would place his life on the trebly hazardous list of assurance-offices, and pale the roses on the cheeks of directors. The citizen, again, was constantly embroiled in quarrels with which he had no business, and merchants would have looked doubtfully on any proposal to accept a life which was likely enough to end the day after its assurance.

In addition to these chances, there was the liability to "plague, pestilence, and famine." The black pest, the sweating sickness, the small-pox, are names to conjure up frightful images. Nothing is now certainly known of the numbers which these diseases swept away in our early history, but the rapidity with which whole families disappeared tended to exaggerate the feeling of insecurity. It seems, therefore, almost impossible to suppose that any plan of life assurance could have existed during these ages, when there were no documents to give the number of deaths, and no laws to determine the value of life. But if assurances were rare, we have constant evidence that annuities were familiar enough. The State employed them for its wants; scriveners employed them for the necessities of their clients; Pole and Whittington, Canning and Gresham, invested their mercantile gains in them; the usurer made his money breed by granting them in many forms and on various securities; and although to arrive at a just system of annuities was as difficult as a just system of assurance, yet the usurer took as much care in the one case to secure his own interest, as he would in the other had it been an operation into which he chose to enter.

Audley, like many of our own day, was equally ready to lend money to the gay gallants of the town on annuities, as he was to receive it from the thrifty poor who took, on "the security of the great Audley," the savings of their youth to secure an annuity for their age. But needy as the youngsters of that day might be, the usurer was as willing as they were needy. He lent them, however, with grave remonstrances on their extravagance, and took the cash they paid him, with an air of paternal regret.

His money bred. He formed temporary partnerships with the stewards of country gentlemen, and, having by the aid of the former gulled the latter, finished by cheating the associates who had assisted him to his prey. The annuity-monger was also a philosopher. He never pressed for his debts when he knew they were safe. When one of his victims asked where his conscience was, he replied, "We monied people must balance accounts. If you don't pay me my annuity, you cheat me; if you do, I cheat you." He said his deeds were his children, which nourished best by sleeping.

His word was his bond; his hour was punctual; his opinions were compressed and sound. In his time he was called the great Audley; and though the Fathers of the Church proclaimed the sin of usury to be the original sin, Audley smiled at their assertions and went on his way rejoicing. As his wealth increased he purchased an office in the Court of Wards; and the entire fortunes of the wards of Chancery being under his control and that of the other officers of the court, it may be supposed that Audley's annuity-jobbing increased. When he quarrelled with one who disputed the payment of an annuity, and who, to prove his resisting power, showed and shook his money-bags, Audley sarcastically asked "whether they had any bottom?" The exulting possessor answered in the affirmative. "In that case," replied Audley, "I care not; for in my office I have a constant spring." Here he pounced on incumbrances which lay on estates; he prowled about to discover the cravings of their owners, which he did to such purpose that, when asked what was the value of his office, he replied, "Some thousands of pounds to any one who wishes to get to heaven immediately; twice as much to him who does not mind being in purgatory; and nobody knows what to him who will adventure to go to hell." Charity forbids us to guess to which of these places Audley went. He did not long survive the extinction of the Court of Wards, and died "receiving the curses of the living for his rapine, while the stranger who had grasped the million he had raked together owed him no gratitude at his death."

It must have been the widow of some such shrewd assurer who dared the dangers of Chancery in 1682, and endeavoured to file a bill, the purport of which was to compel 500 individuals to declare the amounts they owed her husband, who is designated as "a kind of insurer." The boldness of this woman in attacking 500 persons attracted attention; and the alarm which must have possessed her creditors was no doubt heightened by the fact that 60 skins of vellum and 3000 sheets of paper composed the bill, and that each would be compelled to have a copy, provided the plaintiff were successful. Not only, however, did Lord Chancellor North, "amazed at the effrontery of the woman," dismiss the bill on the ground of the enormous expense which each defendant would incur, but he directed the plaintiff's counsel to refund his charges and to "take his labour for his pains."

FOOTNOTES:

JUDAH MANASSEH LOPEZ, THE JEW USURER--HIS TRICK ON THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM--SUSPICIONS CONCERNING HIM.--THE INCREASE OF LONDON.--POPULATION OF LONDON.--PROCLAMATIONS.--HALLEY'S MOVEMENT IN LIFE ASSURANCE--HIS TABLES.

Among the frequenters of St. Paul's, when the noble, the merchant, and the citizen congregated in its walk, was an old man known to all who met there in their daily avocations as Judah Manasseh Lopez. A Lombard, a Jew, and a usurer, it was difficult to say whether the outward respect he received from his customers was not counterbalanced by the curses he received from the public. The bullying mien of the self-dubbed captain sunk into a more subdued tone as he asked for loans or deprecated payment. The spendthrift who was dicing away his paternal inheritance, and who had security to offer for the money he wanted, was more indifferent, while the goldsmith shrunk from his approach with a contemptuous expression he did not always care to conceal. This man employed his wealth in the purchase and sale of annuities. He lent to merchants when their vessels failed to bring them returns in time to meet their engagements. He advanced cash on the jewels of those whom a disturbed period involved in conspiracies which required the sinews of war. But annuities were his favourite investment; and to him, therefore, resorted all that were in difficulties and were able to deal with him. With the highest and the lowest he trafficked. He was feared by most, and respected by none. One remarkable feature in his business was, that no one found it easy to recover the property he had pledged, provided it much exceeded the amount advanced. In an extremity, Buckingham, the favourite of Charles, applied to and received assistance from the Jew on the deposit of some deeds of value. When the time approached which had been stipulated for repayment, Lopez appeared before the Duke in an agony of grief, declaring his strong-room had been broken into, his property pilfered, and the Duke's deeds carried away. But Buckingham had dealt too much with men of this class to believe the story on the mere word of such a Jew. He, therefore, kept the usurer while he ordered some retainers to proceed to the city and to search out the truth, placing the Hebrew at the same time under watch and ward, with an utter indifference to his comfort. When the messengers returned, they avouched that all Lombard Street was in an uproar at the violation of its stronghold. Still the Duke was dissatisfied, and refused to part with his prey until he had received full value for his deposit. In vain the Hebrew fell on his knees, in vain did he call on Father Abraham to attest his innocence, for in the midst of one of his most solemn asseverations Buckingham was informed that a scrivener was urgent in soliciting an audience, and he saw at the same time that a cloud came over the face of Lopez. The request of the scrivener being granted, to the Duke's astonishment he produced the missing document, explaining to his Grace that Lopez, believing the scrivener too much in his power to betray him, had placed it in his charge until the storm should blow over, but that, fearing the Duke's power and trusting to his protection, he had brought it to York House. On the instant Buckingham confronted the two. The Jew's countenance betrayed his crime, and, fawning on the very hem of the Duke's garment, he begged forgiveness, and crouched like a dog to procure it. From that time it is probable that the Duke had his loans on more equitable terms and on smaller security, as he dismissed the Jew with a consideration the latter did not deserve.

But darker and more dangerous things were hinted of this man. He was well versed in medical lore. He was reputed to possess subtle drugs; and it was often noticed that the healthiest of those to whom he was bound to pay life annuities were sometimes cut off in a remarkable way, and that, too, after they had been closeted with him. Whether Lopez granted insurances on lives is unknown, but he lived himself to a bad old age, hated as much as he was feared, and sought after as much as he was despised.

Such men made large profits. They knew nothing and they cared nothing for the chances of life. Their charges covered all risks. And so little was known of the number of the people, that a few desultory facts concerning this and a previous period, being gathered from various sources, may not be unacceptable or uninstructive. Up to this time, and long after, the population of London and of England was a riddle. The utmost exaggeration prevailed in all the accounts which we possess concerning it. Fitzstephen writes of London being peopled with a multitude of inhabitants; and adds, that, in the fatal wars under King Stephen, 80,000 men were mustered. Allowing for the martial fury of the time, this would give a population of 400,000 in the twelfth century dwelling in London. Everything points to the fact that the metropolis augmented more than the authorities thought good.

The progressive increase of London was a continual source of alarm. In 1581 a proclamation was issued, forbidding any new buildings. Elizabeth caused a statute to be passed to the same effect, because "such multitudes could hardly be governed, by ordinary justice, to serve God and obey her Majesty;" and because "such great multitudes of people in small rooms, being heaped up together, and in a sort smothered, with many families of children and servants, in one tenement, it must needs follow, if any plague or any universal sickness come among them, it would presently spread through the whole city." These proclamations were continued. James said, so many people "cumbering the city were a general nuisance;" adding, that the single women who came from the country marred their reputations, and that the married lost them. Still the people flocked, in spite of proclamations, and in opposition to statutes. Old country establishments crowded by the score to "upstart London," "pinching many a belly to paint a few backs, and burying all the treasures of the kingdom in a few citizens' coffers." At last some effect was produced, not however by the proclamation, but by fining one Mr. Palmer a thousand pounds. Still, if we may judge by what Howel writes, the city of London continued to increase "For the number of human souls breathing in city and suburbs, London may compare with any in Europe in point of populousness." This he estimates, taking "within that compass where the point of the Lord Mayor's sword reacheth," at a million and a half of souls. Foreigners could scarcely understand the huge concourse which thronged London, and which for a long time baffled our earlier political economists, who wondered how it was that the annual deaths outbalanced the annual births. Our satirists were very hard on the new comers. Ben Jonson describes them as "country gulls," who come up every term to learn to take tobacco and see new notions. They paid heavily for their lesson in London life; and many an annuity was wrung out of the fat land of the country gentleman from his visit to the metropolis. Sir Richard Fanshawe, in an elegant and elaborate poem,--an evidence that the subject occupied public attention,--asks,

"Who would pursue The smoky glory of the town, That may go till his native earth, And by the shining fire sit down On his own hearth,

"Free from the griping scrivener's hands And the more biting mercer's books, Free from the bait of oiled hands And painted looks?"

That the tables of Graunt and Petty had produced small practical effect, and that little or nothing was known as to the chances of life, may be gathered from a pamphlet printed in 1680, in which the whole doctrine of the value of life as then understood and acted on is affirmed: the utmost value allotted to the best life was 7 years, at which the life of a "healthful man," at any age between 20 and 40, was estimated; while that of an aged or sickly person was from 5 to 6 years, the various limits between these two extremes constituting the whole range of difference in value.

Such was the limited nature of the statistics of life when the Astronomer Royal Halley compiled those calculations which make his name honoured by directors and actuaries. To him we owe the germ of all subsequent developments of this science, in that general formula for calculating the value of annuities which is yet regarded with so much respect.

Up to the period in which he lived--the latter half of the seventeenth century--the town of Breslau, in Silesia, was the only place which recorded the ages of its dead; and from these Halley drew a table of the probabilities of the duration of human life at every age. This was in 1693, and was the first table of the sort ever published. In it he taught, with great clearness and exactness, the conditions needful for the formation of rates of mortality; the manner of forming them with complete geometrical precision; of deducing a corresponding table of the present state and annual movement of the population; of reading in them the probability of survivorship of any person taken at random in a given society; of, in truth, concluding upon the probable duration of the co-existence of several individuals from the sole knowledge of their age. He also first developed the true method of calculating life annuities, taking for his guide the rate of mortality during five successive years in Breslau.

That the tables of Dr. Halley were very much wanted may be assumed, as in 1692 annuities were granted on single lives at 14 per cent., or only 7 years' purchase; and that the State took very little trouble to apply these tables is as true, for we read that, soon after they were published, annuities were estimated on 1 life at 9 years' purchase, on 2 lives at 11 years', and on 3 lives at 12 years' purchase. Some allowance must, of course, be made for the difficulty of raising money and the difference of interest; still the price paid was out of all proper proportion. But the most singular circumstance connected with government annuities at this period is, that, when life annuities were changed into annuities for 99 years, the owner of a life annuity might secure an annuity for 99 years, by paying only 4-1/2 years' extra purchase. Thus, by the payment of 15-1/2 years' purchase, a certain annuity of 99 years could be procured.

FOOTNOTE:

The following figures will give some idea of the chances of life as estimated by Dr. Halley:--

Out of 1000 born, 661 will be living at 10 years of age. " " 628 " 15 " " " 598 " 20 " " " 567 " 25 " " " 531 " 30 " " " 490 " 35 " " " 445 " 40 " " " 397 " 45 " " " 346 " 50 " " " 292 " 55 " " " 242 " 60 " " " 192 " 65 " " " 142 " 70 " " " 88 " 75 " " " 41 " 80 " " " 19 " 84 "

FIRST TRIAL CONCERNING LIFE ASSURANCE.--THE MERCERS'--ITS ESTABLISHMENT AND SYSTEM.--THE SUN--JOHN POVEY, ITS PROJECTOR--HIS CHARACTER.--WAGERS ON THE LIFE OF KING WILLIAM.--NEW ASSURANCES.--THE AMICABLE--THE MODE IN WHICH IT WAS ESTABLISHED.--NEW ANNUITY SOCIETIES--ANECDOTES CONCERNING THEM--CLOSE OF THEIR CAREER.

It may be judged that life assurance was in operation by the latter end of the seventeenth century, as a policy was made on the life of Sir Robert Howard, for one year, from the 3rd of September, 1697. On the same day in the following year Sir Robert died, and the merchant refused to pay, on the ground that the policy had expired. Lord Holt, however, ruled, that "'from the day of the date' excluded the day itself, and that the underwriter was liable." This appears the first assurance on a life of which there is positive legal record.

The desired assistance was granted, and it need not be added that the company is now one of the most flourishing in London.

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