| THE STATE IN THE MARYLAND ECONOMY, 1776-1807 2$9
in the shares of the public debt of United States or of bank
stock, the rest as most advantageous to the company. There
were no provisions concerning approval for stock transfers.
Dividends were to be declared every six months."
By 1807 Maryland had chartered two mutual fire compa-
nies (including the one in Georgetown), three joint-stock fire
companies, and the five joint-stock companies which wrote fire,
life, and marine insurance, the latter type predominating. The
capital of several of the joint-stock companies came nearest to
rivaling the size of that of the banks, the largest companies
measured by capital. They fared almost as well financially as
the banks.=34
None of the unincorporated insurance corporations or so-
cieties which came to the General Assembly for incorporation
invited the state government to subscribe for their stock. And
never, in any of the charters granted to these companies, did
the General Assembly encourage these corporations by reserv-
ing any of their stock for the state. No device other than the
privileges conferred by the incorporation itself was ever of-
fered by the state.
Close relations existed between insurance companies and
banks at this time. 1.1'here there were banks, insurance prem-
iums were usually paid with bank notes. Insurance companies
often had surplus funds to invest or deposit for safe keeping,
and in the first insurance charters only banks and national debt
shares were considered suitable investments. The relationship
tended to be even closer because the merchant class who re-
quired both services usually controlled both.235 Robert Gilmor,
Robert Oliver, and William Patterson-just to take three of
the most prominent Baltimore merchants -were stockholders
or directors of many of the leading banks and insurance com-
panies chartered in Maryland after the Revolution.
2" Ibid., c. 77. How long these three companies existed is a subject of some
disagreement. Griffith, Annals o/ Baltimore, (Baltimore, 1824) , p. 152
says they
were soon discontinued, while Brantx Mayer in Baltimore: Past - and
-Present,
(Baltimore, 1871) , p. 64 says that all three companies paid enormous
dividends
to stockholders. There seem to be no records of the companies' existence,
except
One Policy of the Chesapeake Company issued in 1805, now in the Maryland
Col-
lection, Enoch Pratt Free Library.
29' Davis, 11, 245-46.
zas laid.
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