| THE STATE IN THE MARYLAND ECONOMY, 1776-1807 231
holders of the Baltimore Insurance Fire Company, informed
the General Assembly that
the capital of the . . . company consists of notes of hand, conver-
tible only into money in cases of loss by fire, and that in the event
of failure or bankruptcy among the stockholders, the insured might
become considerable sufferers: - circumstances which, by affecting
the solidity of the funds, operate to destroy the public confidence
in the said institution.204
They asked for a new act of incorporation to " obviate the in-
consistencies of the old one." The Maryland legislature granted
a new charter under the name of the " Maryland Insurance
Fire Company " with this corporation to have a capital of not
more than $60,000. Although the arrangements regarding
stock differed from those of the old company, they still re-
mained peculiar by today's standards. Subscribers were to
show evidence of owning $400 in the Bank of Maryland stock or
in the public debt of the United States for each share in the
new company that they wished to purchase. These securities
were to be written on the books of the Bank of Maryland as
belonging to the Maryland Insurance Fire Company. Yet the
stockholders of the Fire Company were to receive dividends
upon and continue to have the other privileges of the bank
and public debt shares, including that of transfer. No stock
was issued by the fire insurance company; rather it was the
bank stock and debt shares which constituted the capital of
the company.=°3 As one contemporary letter to a newspaper
noted, the objects in modifying the capital structure were to
obtain a capital stock instantly convertible into specie, which
at the same time, would not draw any specie out of circula-
tion, and to obtain a capital stock of such a nature as to in-
spire in everyone the same confidence as specie.2°6
Provisions for making fire losses good, however, remained
substantially the same as those of the old company: the presi-
dent of the company was to call for a specified sum of
money from each stockholder; and if it was not forthcoming,
he was to sell the stock, the purchaser succeeding as stock-
holder. There were to be yearly dividends and triennial " exact
2u, Md. Sess., 1791 c. 69. 206 Ibid.; Davis, 11, 2538-39.$°° Md. J., Mar.
20, 1792.
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