Standard Gold.
In 1855, an alteration was made in the quality of gold marked in Goldsmiths’ Hall, it being represented to the President of the Board of Trade that it would be advantageous alike to the manufacturer and the public: instead of there being only two different standards, there are now five—viz., 22, 18, 15, 12, and 9 carats. If, on the purchase of a watch, the cases, instead of having the mark of “18 carat,” the gold of which would be worth 67s. per oz., should be marked only “12 carat,” the gold is worth only 45s. per oz., and the purchaser has been legally robbed of the difference in value, which, supposing the cases to weigh 1 oz. 10 dwts., would be 33s.
When purchasing a gold watch, therefore, see that the cases are marked “18 carat;” if they are not so marked, do not make the purchase.
Interest of Money.
Among the curiosities of the Exchequer, it may be mentioned that about the year 1857, there were paid into its account the proceeds of a lottery prize, drawn in the reign of George II., but which had remained unclaimed for 102 years. The original amount of the prize was 490l., to which in the course of a century there had been added 1499l. 8s. for interest. The sum of 1989l. 8s. was therefore handed over for the public service; but even now we have no doubt that if the purchaser of the ticket, warned by this announcement of the fact, can come forward and prove his claim, the money will be honourably refunded to him from the Exchequer.
Interest of Money in India.
In the Institutes of Menu, which were drawn up about B.C. 900, the lowest legal interest for money is fixed at 15 per cent., the highest at 60 per cent. Nor is this to be considered a mere ancient law now fallen into disuse. So far from that, the Institutes of Menu are still the basis of Indian jurisprudence; and we know, on very good authority, that in 1810, the interest paid for the use of money varied from 36 to 60 per cent.; Ward places it at 75 per cent., and this without the lender incurring any extraordinary risk.
Origin of Insurance.
Mr. G. F. Smith, in a paper read to the Institute of Actuaries, is of opinion that the earliest direct mention of Marine Insurance is in an ordinance of the City of Barcelona, of the year 1433, in which it is ordered that no vessel should be insured for more than three-quarters of its value; that no merchandise belonging to foreigners should be insured at Barcelona, unless freighted on board a ship belonging to the King of Arragon; and that merchandise belonging to Arragonese subjects on board vessels belonging to other countries should only be insured for half its value. It appears most probable that the inventors of Marine Insurance were the Italians, who, as is well known, were the leading commercial nation in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It was in Venice that the first Bank was established, and that a funded debt, transferable from hand to hand, was first introduced. Bills of exchange, if not invented in Italy, were used extensively by the Lombard merchants and money-dealers; and book-keeping by double entry is of Italian origin; as is also the phrase, “Policy of Assurance.”
After the Great Fire, Assurance Offices were set up. One of these is described, in Phillips’s World of Words, under the heading “Phœnix Insurance Office, the first office that was set up in London for the insuring of houses from accidents by fire, so called from its emblem or device: the rate for ensuring 100 pounds on a brick house, is 6 shillings for 1 year, 12 shillings for 2 years, 15 shillings for 3 years, 19 shillings and sixpence for four years, 1 pound 10 shillings for seven years, and 2 pounds 1 shilling for eleven years: the number of houses so insured since Anno Dom. 1681 is ten thousand.” A second is mentioned as the “Friendly Society, one of the offices settled in London for the insuring of houses from casualties by fire: the reward or consideration-money paid for insuring to the value of 100 pounds in this office, is 1 shilling 4 pence per annum for seven years. The device of it is a sheaf of arrows, and the number of houses insured since A.D. 1684 is 12,500.”