UNITED STATES. The first fire-insurance com pany in the United States was opened at Phila delphia in 1752, and incorporated in 1765. It was called the Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire. Benjamin Franklin was one of its first directors. This company still survives. It is a mutual company, and writes only perpetual risks. Its business is confined to the State of Pennsylvania. The development of the fire-insuranee business was slow at first, being greatly retarded by the financial and industrial disturbances due to the Revolution. Before the end of the eighteenth century, 1101VVV4.1., at least. thirty charters had been granted to companies for carrying on the business. Among the oldest existing companies may be mentioned the Insurance Cornpany of North America and the Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania, both located in Phila delphia and both ineorporated in 1794; the Mutu al Assurance Company of the City of Norwich (Conn.), which began lousiness in 1795; and the Providence Washington Insurance Company. of Providence, It. ineorporated in 1799. The oldest existing New York company was organized in 1806, and the oldest Massachusetts company in 1818. Thousands of charters bate been grant ed to tire-insurance companies since the begin ning of the nineteenth century, but many of them have never been used. In a general way the number of new companies established from year to year has varied with the general prosperity of the country, and every period of depression has seen the failure or withdrawal of a number of companies. The most trying time in the his tory of fire insurance in the United States dur ing the last fifty years came in the early seven ties. In October, 1S71, as a result of the Chi cago fire, insurance companies became liable for indemnities amounting to more than $96.500,000. In November of the following year occurred the great Boston fire, which brought a loss of more than $52,600,000 upon the companies. These two great losses, coming in quick succession, sub jected all fire-insurance companies to great strain. More than a hundred of them were forced to sus pend operations, while many others found their surplus wiped out and their capital seriously im paired. While there has been no such wholesale slaughter of companies since that time, there have been many isolated eases of failure. It is estimated that in the nineteenth century not less than one thousand fire-insurance companies per ished, entailing very great loss upon insurers and insured alike. On the whole, however, the his tory of the century, and especially of the second half of it, shows a nearly constant growth in the magnitude of the fire-insurance business, and a steady improvement in the financial standing of the companies. During the latter part of the
century the establishment of governmental super vision of insurance companies in many of the States, involving periodical reports from each company, and thus a great degree of publicity as to its financial condition, has done much to pre vent reckless management on the part cf the companies and to protect the interests of the insured.
It is impossible to obtain complete statistics of the number of fire-insurance companies in the United States, or of the amount of business they transact. In a number of the States certain companies, especially the small mutuals. are exempted from the duty of reporting to the commissioner, and statistics about such eom panie.s are nowhere attainable. There are prob ably in the United States at the present time nearly or quite 2000 companies granting insur ance against fire. Of this number, however, only about 150 are of any considerable size or operate over a large territory. The total amount of fire insurance carried by all the companies is probably not far from $30.000,000,000. The average rate' of premium in 1901, according to the tables presented at the meeting of the .Na tional Beard of Fire Underwriters in May, 1902, was practically $1.03 for each $100 of insurance. This rate fluctuates considerably, the figures for the decade 1891-1900 showing a maximum of $1.12 in 1894, and a minimum of $0.99 in 1899. Profits for the decade, as shown by the dividends declared, have been fairly uniform. The lowest average annual rate during the decade was 10.43 per cent., in 1803: the highest, 11.65 per cent., in 1899. In seven of the ten years the average rate exceeded 11 per cent.
Some indication of the increase in the use of fire insurance by property-owners may be gained from a comparison of the total tire loss for dif ferent periods with the losses sustained by the insurance companies during the same periods. The figures given in the Spectator Year Book fur 1902 indicate that in the decade 1551-1890 57.4 per cent. of the total fire loss was covered by insurance, while in the decade 1891-1900 110.9 per cent. of the total loss was thus covered. The following table, compiled from the reports made to the Insurance Department of the State of New York by companies operating in that State, may serve to illustrate the growth of the business (iring the last forty years of the nine teenth century. It must be remembered, how ever, that the actual growth has been greater than these numbers indicate, owing to the in crease in the proportion of companies in the West and South which make no report to the New York Department: