. In addition to this, they held an authoritative position
as holding a share of the capital. England very soon gave instructions
that English insurance companies should not participate in any
business in which German interests were in any way involved.
Consequently in making shipments to neutral countries, we were
faced with great difficulties, for the power of the German insurance
companies and the few American companies that were independent of
England did not suffice.

The two most important German companies with branches in New York,
the _Norddeutsche Versicherungsgesellschaft_ and the _Mannheimer
Versicherungsgesellschaft_, which was excellently, actively, and
very loyally represented in New York by the firm F. Hermann & Co.,
at first offered an insurance limit of about 75,000 dollars, that
is 150,000 dollars together, which in any case was insufficient.
At first they had no authority to undertake war insurance.

The economic importance of the insurance question is obvious on the
face of it. No marine insurance was possible without war insurance.
In particular the American Government bureau for war insurance made
the covering of the marine insurance an essential condition. This
example was followed by all the American insurance companies. A
satisfactory settlement of the insurance--both war and marine--on
the other hand was a necessary condition for the financing of the
shipments. The shippers only obtained credit from the bank on handing
over the insurance policies. In addition to this it came about later
that the few American shipping lines which remained independent
of England, and so were on the black list, were no longer in a
position to cover the "Hull Insurance," i.e., the insurance of the
ship herself, and therefore the solution of the insurance question
became a necessary condition for obtaining freight space. Here
too, then, it was to our interest to come to the rescue, because
otherwise the lines in question would have been forced to come to
an understanding with the English firms, which would have placed
their tonnage at the service of our enemies.

To begin with, Herr Albert himself undertook the insurance in cases
of exceptional importance. It was at most a question of a small
balance, by the furnishing of which an immediate risk or a dangerous
delay in shipment was avoided. Our chief efforts were directed
towards raising the insurance limit of the German companies. As
a result a pool of German i