Note 237-5 — Chapter III

Outside of Germany, public fire insurance is to be still found only in German Austria, in Denmark, Switzerland and Scandinavia. The Germans had, in 1871, an insurance-sum of 5,908,760,000 thalers, while the mutual private insurance companies had about 1,435,000,000 (of which, at most, 200,000,000 to 300,000,000 were on immovable property), and joint-stock insurance companies, after deducting re-insurance (Rückversicherung), about 7,000,000,000. (Mittheilungen der öff. F. V. Anstalten, 1874, 84 ff.) Between 1865 and 1870, it was estimated that the per capita insurance of the population was: in Saxony, 407 thalers; in Würtemberg, 410; in Baden, 365; in Prussia, 332; in Switzerland, 425. On the other hand, in the much wealthier British Empire, only 325 per capita; in North America, 215. (loc. cit., 92.) Even in the case of joint-stock insurance companies, the average receipts of premiums (1867-70) were, in Germany, 2 per 1,000 of the insurance-sums; in the United Kingdom, 4.06 per 1,000; in the United States, 10.77; and the damage respectively 1.25, 2.28, 5.92 per 1,000 of the insurance-sum. (loc. cit., 93.)