r day_, 1863-4. ||
| ||
| Exchanges $77,984,455.20 ||
| Balances 2,866,405.19 ||
+-----------------------------------------------------++

+------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
|Aggregate Exchanges for Eleven Years $95,540,602,384.53 |
| " Balances " " " 4,678,311,016.79 |
| ------------------- |
| Total Transactions $101,218,913,401.32 |
| |
+------------------------------------------------------------+

On the 31st day of December, 1863, there were 101 joint-stock companies
for the underwriting of fire-risks, with an aggregate capital of
$23,632,860; net assets to the amount of $29,269,423; net cash receipts
from premiums amounting to $10,181,031; and an average percentage of
assets to risks in force equalling 2.995. Besides these 101 joint-stock
concerns, there existed at the same date twenty-one mutual
fire-insurance companies, with an aggregate balance in their favor of
$674,042. The rapidity with which mutual companies have yielded to the
compacter and more efficient form of the joint-stock concern will be
comprehended when it is known that just twice the number now in being
have gone out of existence during the last decade. There are twelve
marine insurance companies in the metropolis, with assets amounting to
$24,947,559. The life-insurance companies number thirteen, with an
aggregate capital of $1,885,000. We may safely set down the property
invested in New York insurance companies of all sorts at $51,139,461.
Add this sum to the aggregate banking capital above stated, and we have
a total of $120,359,224. This vast sum merely represents New York's
interest in the management of other people's money. The bank is employed
as an engine for operating debt and credit. Its capital is the necessary
fuel for running the machine; and that fuel ought certainly not to cost
more than a fair interest on the products of the engine. The insurance
companies guard the business-man's fortune from surprise, as the banks
relieve him from drudgery; they put property and livelihood beyond the
reach of accident: in other words, they manage the estates of the
community so as