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covered by premiums paid in at the time of insuring and if
those were insufficient, by proportionate assessments on the
members. In order that the funds secured from premiums
would not " lie idle," a majority of stockholders was to decide
how to employ the money so as " to produce interest." They
were at liberty to choose any method not contrary to the laws
of Maryland-which might have included banking. Unlike the
Baltimore Equitable Society provisions were made for the
Georgetown Mutual to insure persons who did not desire to
join the mutual and share the risk.""
All except one of the fire insurance companies were located
in Baltimore, and all did predominently local business. Most
of these companies were financially successful as well as fairly
long-lived. Their dividends were large but fluctuated some-
what more than those of banks.°-22 But all the fire companies,
no matter how short a time they survived, fulfilled a genu-
ine need in Maryland's largest city.
There was no public necessity for incorporating companies
to insure ships and cargo as there had been for insuring homes
from fire. Throughout the eighteenth century marine risks
were split among interested merchants. It was only at the end
of the century that some found it more profitable to associate
formally for the purpose .2=3 With improved organization of
marine insurance underwriting, merchants no longer needed
to give their time to underwriting, only their money.
Although Baltimore shipping grew tremendously after the
Revolution, the Maryland legislature chartered no marine in-
surance companies until 1795. In that year the General As-
sembly incorporated two rival ones, " The Baltimore Insur-
ance Company " and " The Maryland Insurance Company."
Both companies had been organized before applying to the leg-
islature for incorporation. Although the charters were issued
on the same day, they were not similar. Here again the legis-
lature seems to have had no preconceived idea of the charac-
teristics of an insurance company; where a society or joint-
stock company already existed, it preferred to incorporate the
company under its own rules and regulations. The Baltimore
Insurance Company had a capital of $300,000, a somewhat re-
"1 Md. Sess., 1798 c. 77. "' Davis, II, 245. "' 16id, lI, 233.
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