HISTORY. Originally life insurance was not much more than an incident of marine insurance. When the success or failure of a voyage depended largely on the personal qualities of the master of the ship, the owners of ship and cargo would in• sure themselves not only against the perils of the deep, but also against the danger of loss through the death of the master; that is, they took out insurance on the life of the master for the voyage. These early life-insuranee policies were written by individuals long before life-in surance companies came into existence. The earliest policy of which anything definite is known was issued in London in 1583, insuring the life of one William Gybbons for twelve months. This was underwritten by thirteen persons act ing individually; the premium was $S0 per thou sand.
The earliest life-insurance company of which we have definite information was established in 1699 by the Mercers' Company of London for the benefit of the widows and orphans of subscribers. The members of the company hound themselves to pay five shillings apiece to constitute an in demnity to be paid on the death of each mem ber. The oldest existing life-insurance com panies are the London Assurance Corporation and the Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation, both of which were chartered in 1720. and began to issue life policies in 1721. The Equitable, established in 1762, was the first office to devote itself exclusively to the business of life insur ance, and to make use of the scientific methods which characterize modern underwriting. The only other surviving English society which has come down from the eighteenth century is the Pelican, which was founded in 1797.
The first life-insurance society established in the United States was incorporated in Philadel phia in 1759. It was called the Presbyterian Annuity and Life Insurance Company. This company still exists, having amended its charter in 1875 and changed its name to the Presbyte rian Ministers' Fund Life Insurance Company. Two other similar societies were established in the eighteenth century, one in Philadelphia in 1769 for the relief of widows and children of clergymen of the Church of England in America, Insurance Department. The extraordinary growth of the business ,inee 1880 may be perceived from the following table, compiled from these reports: the other in New Jersey in 1784. for the benefit of the Episcopal clergy of that State. The first general life company, the Pennsylvania Company for Insurances upon Lives and Granting Annui ties, was chartered in Philadelphia in 1812. In
ISIS was organized the first Massachusetts com pany, the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company. A number of other companies were chartered during the next twenty years, many of them combining the business of a trust company with that of an insurance company, but the amount of life insurance written was very small. It was not until the early forties that the move ment really began to assume large proportions. Between 1840 and 1850 several of the most promi nent of existing life-insurance companies were es tablished, including the Mutual Life of New York (1842), the State Mutual of Worcester (1844), the Nautilus Insurance Company, now the New York Life, of New York (1845). the Connecticut Mutual of Hartford (1846), and the Pennsylvania Mutual of Philadelphia (1847).
After the war a large number of new com panies entered the field, and a period of intense competition followed. The resulting laxity in the inspection of risks and great expenses of management led many of the newer and less con servative. companies into financial difficulties. During the decade following 1870 a considerable number failed and many others reinsured their risks and retired from business. This aroused a hitherto unknown feeling of distrust in the minds of the people, and caused a falling off in the amount. of business. from which the companies were fifteen years in recovering. • The serious ness of this decline is shown by the following statistics of the insurance in force in companies reporting to the New York Insurance Depart ment : 1870. $2,023,000,000; 1875, $1.922.000,000 ; 1580, $1,524,000,000; 1885, $2,023,000,000. Dur ing the same years the number of companies re porting fell from seventy-one to thirty. Since ISSO the growth of the business in the rnited States has been steady and rapid. The New York report for 1902 shows insurance in force Decent .ber 31, 1001. amounting to $7.572.000.000. of which $864.000.000 was foreign brNinesg, leav ing $6.70S.000.000 in force in the United States. At the same time there were industrial policies in force carrying $1.620.000.000 of insurance, and from five to six million members of fraternal beneficiary associations.
A very large proportion of the life insurance in force in the United States is in the hands of companies making reports to the New York State