[Footnote 237a-11: The founder of the Mutual Fire Insurance Company of Gotha expressed the hope that in it, it would be possible to insure 60 per cent. cheaper than was customary in the joint stock companies of the time. In the system of agricultural _Einzelhöfe_ in Germany, small mutual insurance companies are possible, and insurance then may be very cheap.] [Footnote 237a-12: On the premium associations, _Bernoulli_ Ueber die Vorzüge der gegenseitige Brandasscuranzen vor Prämiengesellschaften, 1827. _Per contra_, _Masius_, Lehre der Versicherung und Statische Nachweisung aller V. Anstalten in Deutschland, 1846. In Prussia, premium associations are growing more rapidly than mutual: the per capita amount on the whole population insured in the former against damage from fire in 1861 was 116.6 thalers; in 1866, 154.2; in 1869, 176.6; in the latter in 1861, 103.5; 1866, 124.3; 1869, 154.3 thalers. (_Engel_, Statist. Zeitschr., 1868, 268 ff.; 1871, 284 ff.) In France, in the former, in 1857, almost 36 milliards of francs; in the latter, in 1864, 13 milliards. (Mitth., 1871, 51.)] SECTION CCXXXVII (_b_). INSURANCE IN GENERAL.--ECONOMIC ADVANTAGES OF INSURANCE. The national-economic advantage of insurance consists in this, that the damage which is divided among many, and which, therefore, is felt but lightly by each one, is probably made up for, not by an inroad upon the body of still existing original resources, but by savings made from income. This, indeed, is unconditionally true only of such damage as does not depend at all on the will of man, such as, for instance, the damage caused by hail. On the other hand, there is especially in maritime[237b-1] and fire insurance,[237b-2] a great temptation to culpable and even criminal destruction; to the latter, when the object insured is estimated at too high a value. (Speculation-fires!) And it is difficult to say whether this drawback or that advantage is the greater. But, on the other hand, every kind of insurance is attended by good consequences to the credit of a people. It is of advantage to personal credit, since it prevents sudden impoverishment; but it is by far more advantageous to real-credit (_Realcredit_ = _material credit_) the pledges of which, while their forms may be destroyed, it preserves the value of; that is their economic essence. This last is most clearly manifest in the case of public insurance institutions, with compulsory participation; while in the case of entirely voluntary insurance, the creditor can never be certain that his debtor has not neglected something necessary. The aggregate danger is less than the sum of individual dangers, for the reason that it is more certain, and that uncertainty of itself is an element of danger.[237b-3] [237b-4]