ABSTRACT
At one time France had a much better relative position in marine business than it appears to hold to-day. It is when we come to the United States that the story of insurance in other countries really becomes interesting and picturesque. There are still nearly 190 insurance companies of all kinds doing business in the State of New York—life, fire, and marine—but the great majority of them are quite modern, especially the life companies. As in France, so in the United States English companies have for many years been keen competitors, but, as a rule, only in fire and marine business, and the experience of the fire offices over there has been so unfortunate from first to last, that the tendency now is for them to retire from the field. The United States is the home of fantastic schemes and out-of-the-way devices for attracting money from the public under the guise of insuring this, that, or the other.
