Marine Insurance.—The following is the mode in which an insurance of this class is effected Lloyd's. The merchant or shipowner who desires to effect an insurance, writes on a, piece of paper called a slip (q.v.) the name of tho ship, the particulars of the voyage entered or about to be entered upon, tho nature of tho cargo, and tho amount to be insured ; he should also state tho conditions on which tho insurance is to be done, that is to say, whether it is to cover all risks, or to ha free of particular average, &c. ; he would also, if used to insuring, add the rate of premium ho thinks it should be done at. This slip, according to tho directions in Pearce's Merchant's Clerk, he takes upstairs to the underwriters' room at the Royal Exchange and show • it to ono of the members with whom he is in the habit of insuring, who thereupun writes on the slip his initials, tho proportion of the risk he will be cor tented to bear, and the premium he will charge, if not sati3fied with the rate tho clerk has filled in. He then goes through tho same process with another member, and so on till he has completed tho araount he wants to insure. The insurance is then considekd as done and in full effect, although the signed and stamped policy will not be ready till some days after. Tho merchant or shipowner will find by experience that there are certain leading underwriters at Lloyd's, and that when he has got one of them to initial a slir and fix a rate of premium, he has no difficulty in getting others to follow him. The blank forms of policies are to be procured at Lloyd's, and he must fill them up himself and get them signed by all the underwriters who have initialled his slip. It generally happens that the
underwriters signing a policy divide their portion of the risk with others who do not appear as signatories, but who have given powers to write for them. Thus, if John Brown has initialled a, slip for .£300, and he is a member of a partnership of Brown, Smith & Jones, he will probably sign the policy as follows :— John Brown, .£100. } per John Brown James Smith, .£100.
Three hundred pounds.
Thomas Jones, .£100.
A partnership firm of underwriters would never collectively subscribe a policy as such, because Lloyd's underwriting must be done individually.
The premiums on policies are not paid at once, but carried to account with the merchant.
But marine underwriting is not the monopoly of Lloyd's, for there are various powerful companies which undertake marine insurance, and obtain a very fair share of the business. The mode of effecting an insurance with a company is very much the same as that in vogue with underwriters at Lloyd's. The slip is taken to an officer of the company, and he, if he accepts the risk, initials it. Thereupon the merchant's clerk will fill in the company's form or slip, which is returned, and from which the volicy is made out, also on the company's own form. The form of a company s policy does not differ to any practical extent from a Lloyd's policy. A company, however, usually hands over a " covering note" as an interim policy instead of a slip. See MARINE INSURANCE. The requirements of the law in regard to insur ance at Lloyd's in classes other than marine will be found in an article in the Appendix in continuation of this.