A considerable increase has taken place in many of the imports from Great Britain, such as in cotton wool, cotton twist, and manufactures, earthen-ware, gunpowder, lead, and woollens; but, on comparing the trade in manufactured goods and colonial produce between Great Britain and Norway, and between Altona and Hamburgh and Norway, it will be found that we fall far short of the latter. Since, however, says Mr. Macgregor, in his Commercial Tariffs, Part XII., the establishment of a regular communication once a week by Hull steamers, between that port and Christiansand, considerable quantities of colonial produce and of British manufactures are imported that way into Norway; and it is hoped that the direct trade with England through that channel will increase, and supersede, in some degree, the indirect and costly traffic by way of Hamburgh and Altona. Our trade with Norway will most probably receive an impetus from the recent modifications of our tariff; and, should alterations be made in the duties now levied in that country on our cottons, woollens, and hardware, the improvement would no doubt be rapid and lucrative, and the trade might again be drawn into its legitimate and direct course. The imports from France, although, generally speaking, they have increased of late years, are not as yet of much consequence. The exports of Norwegian produce form the principal trade with that country. The following were the principal articles imported from France, in 1835, 38, and '41::- The greatest advance appears to have been made in the articles of coffee, cut corks, flax, glass, leather, molasses, paper, dried fruits, and soap. Since the separation of Belgium from Holland, a direct intercourse has been established with Norway, which promises well, and will probably become extensive. At present, the imports from Belgium are confined to a few articles, such as The trade with Spain, Portugal, and the Mediterranean States, is limited, and is confined to the produce of the respective countries. The prin We may here shortly observe that a very cursory examination of the foregoing abstracts of the imports will be sufficient to acquaint us, with the increased consumption of articles of luxury, and this fact may be taken as a fair criterion of the growing prosperity of the country. It only now remains for us to take a short review of the shipping of Norway. employing rather more than 15,000 men. The Norwegian flag is to be met with in all parts of the world, competing with British shipping in the carrying trade. As a proof of the extent and success with which they have appropriated to themselves a portion of the carrying trade of the north of Europe, it need only be stated, that in 1838, 249 Norwegian vessels, of 64,784 tons, cleared from Swedish and Finnish ports in the Baltic with cargoes for foreign ports. And 18,733 tons of Norwegian shipping were employed in carrying freight from one foreign port to another. The vessels of Norway begin to offer a serious competition to our own shipping in foreign ports, and it will be found that they not only rank next to the British, but in many places command a preference. And this close competition and preference is not to be traced to any peculiar encouragement offered by the Norwegian Government, or to any superior economy which enables the Norwegians to sail their vessels at a cheaper rate than British vessels, but chiefly to the superior class of masters which the laws of Norway have created. The Norwegian Government, by wise regulations, have, in addition to the practical test required, made certain intellectual acquirements obligatory on those who aspire to be masters of vessels; and the result has been that an intelligent and respectable class of masters has been formed, which has created for their marine a confidence and respect, which our own appears to be losing; for our ordinary class of masters appear to have remained stationary, if they have not absolutely retrograded. These are valuable observations on the improvement of the commercial marine of Norway; and no doubt much of the competition now offered in foreign ports to our shipping, by the Norwegians, Prussians, Austrians, and Americans, might be successfully encountered and overcome, if the British Government would follow the example of the Norwegian, and establish a sound and practical examination for the officers of our mercantile shipping. For the last ten years, from 1833, the annual average number of vessels that cleared from Norway to Denmark was 2,136 of 79,352 tons, and from Denmark to Norway 2,262 vessels of 91,275 tons. There were despatched from Altona and Hamburgh to Norway In 1835,........... 1838,. 1841,.. vessels of 12,990 tons, of which 92,511 tons were Norwegian. From Norway to the several ports of Holland, the number and tonnage of cargoes cleared were In 1835,...... 898 cargoes of 135,112 tons, of which 79,131 tons were Norwegian. 1838, 1841,.. 861 66 84,952 66 The chief proportion of goods exported to our own country is conveyed in Norwegian vessels, as the following figures, showing the number and tonnage of cargoes shipped from Norway to Great Britain, will testify: In 1835,...... 787 cargoes of 115,136 tons, of which 103,607 tons were Norwegian. And the following number and tonnage of vessels belonging to Norway brought cargoes from foreign ports to Great Britain :— A large amount of shipping is employed in the trade between Norway and France, as may be seen by the following number and tonnage of vessels sent from Norway : In 1835, 730 vess. of 124,472 tons, of which 703 vess. of 119,837 tons were Norwegian. 1838.860 66 1841, 829 64 141,227 Independent of this important amount of Norwegian shipping employed between the two countries, about 31,200 tons are annually engaged in the carrying trade between France and other foreign countries. In further illustration of the increased employment of the Norwegian shipping in the direct and carrying trade with foreign countries, we have inserted the following statement of the number and tonnage of Norwegian vessels employed in the foreign trade with each of the principal countries in the two years 1838 and 1841 :— Total,................ 4,138 532,487 1,235 277,792 5,473 810,279 Thus the total tonnage of the shipping employed in the foreign trade in 1838 was 690,007; in 1841 it amounted to 810,279, an increase over the year 1838 of 120,272 tons, or 17 per cent. Of the 810,279 tons in 1841, 532,487 were employed direct between Norway and foreign countries; whilst the remaining 277,792 tons were solely engaged in the carrying trade between one foreign country and another, against 215,666 tons thus employed in 1838, which shows that in 1841 there was an important increase of 62,126 tons, or 283 per cent, in this division of their shipping trade. The figures in this statement do not, of course, represent the actual number and tonnage of vessels belong. ing to the Norwegian commercial marine, as many vessels perform two and three voyages in the course of the year. The real extent of the shipping has been stated in a previous page. The Norwegian Government, by attending to the skill and activity of their pilots, erecting beacons, and preparing charts, are doing much to facilitate the navigation of their coasts, and to make them, with their thousand fiords and harbors, more accessible than they have been hitherto. R. V. Art. III-MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE. SOCIETY ON THE BASIS OF MUTUAL INSURANCE. "Non omnis moriar." THE system of insurance, as now practised in Europe and America, embraces only three kinds of risks-marine, fire, and life risks. Over ships and their cargoes, over houses and their contents, and the chances of life, and over these alone, is its shelter thrown.* Of these three kinds, marine insurance was the first to obtain a firm footing in this country, as it was the first practised in Europe; and, indeed, as a system resting on settled rules of law, dates from the same period in England and the United States, and was incorporated into the jurisprudence of both countries by the same great lawyer, Mansfield. At first, the universal usage was, as our older lawyers and merchants can still testify, to insure marine risks with underwriters-individual insurers, who guarantied each, on his own account, any amount of risk he saw fit, and undertook an individual liability for that amount, but no corporate or associate liability. Stock companies for marine insurance were hardly known in America before the beginning of this century, and began to be established at about the same time as the companies for fire insurance. Indeed, fire insurance seems to have been the purpose for which insurance companies were first formed; and on the other hand it has never, we believe, been effected by underwriters, or otherwise than by companies. The Marine Insurance Company, in the State of New York, was chartered in 1802. The State Marine and the Madison Marine 'were chartered in 1825. Nearly all the marine companies now doing business in the city of New York, have been chartered since the year 1825. Most of the fire insurance companies are of the same recent date. Life insurance in the United States, dates as far back as 1818. In that year, the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company began to insure life risks. The Farmer's Loan and Trust Company, in the city of New York, was incorporated in 1822, under the name of the Fire Insurance and Loan Company. Its charter gives the company "power and authority to insure all kinds of property against loss or damage by fire, upon any life or lives, and to grant annuities on any life or lives, or in any manner depending on any life or lives." The New York Life Insurance and Trust Company, chartered with a capital of $1,000,000, in 1830, insured lives to the amount of $2,449,407, between that year and 1843. The mutual system of insurance, either on marine, fire, or life risks, is of very late date; indeed, it can hardly be said to have been practised at all in the United States before the year 1830. And it is stated in an interesting pamphlet, setting forth the plan and objects of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, that "the subject of mutual life insu rance was introduced to public notice in the United States by that company, soon after it obtained its charter, in April, 1842." During the period from 1842 to 1845, the Atlantic Mutual, the Atlas, the Croton, and the Pelican Companies, and others, were chartered, all on the mutual sys This is a general statement. Barratry, or the misconduct of ship-masters, is insured against as a marine risk, although in its nature a distinct kind of risk. The Equitable Insurance Company of New York city, we believe, insures against burglary. But this is an exception. |