Note 237d-11 — Chapter III

Thus, for instance, in the electorate of Mark, each of the four classes of houses bears its own loss alone. To the fourth class, for instance, belong smithies, brick factories, and buildings with steam engines, etc. The Baden law of 1852 puts the same burthen in the same place, upon houses exposed to danger in a greater or lesser degree; but provides for 4 classes (Gemeindeclassen) with different rates of contribution, and assigns each Gemeinde every year, according to the relative magnitude of the losses of the previous year, to one of those classes. How risky it is for large cities to confine their insurance, because of the ordinarily small amount of damage to them from fire, only to insurance institutions of their own, is shown by the case of Hamburg in the year 1842, where three joint stock insurance companies could pay only from 75 to 80 per cent., and the Bieber Mutual Insurance Company, only 20 per cent.