SOME BOOKS OF THE WEEK.
[Notice in this column does not necessarily preclude subsequent review.
The Royal Exchange. By A. E. W. Mason. (Royal Exchange.) —Mr. Mason has written an entertaining little book on the history of the Royal Exchange and of the Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation, which has now completed its second century. The Exchange itself was first built by Sir Thomas Gresham, rebuilt after the Great Fire, and rebuilt again after the fire of 1838. The Corporation was founded for marine insurance in 1717 and received its charter in 1720, just before the South Sea Bubble burst. As a holder of South Sea stock, it had to be relieved from its embarrassments by an Act of Parliament, but, once started, the Corporation grew and flourished. It undertook life and fire insurance from 1721 and for generations maintained its own fire brigade in " a livery of yellow lined with pink." The little book is illustrated from old pictures and prints .- A similar volume by Mr. G. S. Street, printed for private circula- tion, deals with The London Assurance, 1720-1920, the friendly rival which was initiated by Lord Chetwynd in 1719 and received its charter for marine insurance in 1720 and for fire and life insur- ance in 1721. When historians lament the South Sea Bubble, they somehow forget that the wild speculation was only an excess of commercial enterprise and that the two great insurance companies solidly founded in 1720 have rendered infinitely greater services to British industry and British shipping than the South Sea Company could ever have done. Mr. Street recalls the London of two centuries ago and sketches the quiet beginnings of the London Assurance. His book is well illustrated with photographs and reproductions of old prints and documents, including the bill for a Board dinner of 1778, at which twenty- four directors and twelve servants were royally entertained for a total sum of £27 3s: 9d., including sixpence apiece for the waiters.
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