[Footnote 237c-1: Thus in Austria, even after the middle of the 18th century: _Schopf_, L. W. des öst. Kaiserstaates, I, p. 175. In the mandate of the electorate of Saxony of Dec. 7, 1715; but the fire-fund (_Feuerkasse_) of 1729 depended on voluntary but regular collections, besides which it obtained certain contributions from the state and the church. Those who gave nothing, however, were threatened with getting nothing, or very little, in case of fire. Parties desiring to rebuild massively had especially much to expect. (Cod. August Forst., I, 538.) The charters of the oldest German _Landesbrandkassen_ contain a provision that, in future, no further fire-collections shall be allowed.] [Footnote 237c-2: The English Hand-in-Hand Fire Office for houses, founded in 1696; the Union Fire O., for houses and movable property, in 1714: both mutual institutions. The premium-institution, the Sun Fire Office, 1710 (_Frankenberg_, Europ. Herold, 1705, II, 181), mentions fire insurance as a special characteristic of England. But we may trace fire insurance on buildings and harvest supplies in the low countries about the Vistula in Prussia, even as far back as 1623. (_Jacobi_, loc. cit., 131.) Brandenburg fire-fund, 1705, with voluntary admittance of all houses, and fixed relation between the yearly contribution and the insurance capital. If a fire happened, the fund repaired the damage caused to the fullest extent its means allowed. (_Mylius_, Corp. Const. March. V., I, 174 seq.) Even in 1706, it became necessary to prohibit speaking ill of the institution. It was, therefore, abolished later. The first Würtemberg private fire insurance company, 1754, founded on similar principles, and which was still existing in 1760, had a like fate (_Bergius_, Polizei und Camerelmagazin, III, 40 ff.), but it was exchanged in 1773 for a mutual public company. In Berlin a mutual insurance company in 1718 (_Bergius_, Cameralistenbibliothek, 151); in Denmark, 1830 (_Thaarup_, Dän. Statist., II, 173 seq.); in Silesia, 1742; Calenberg-Grubenhagen, 1750; in Baden, 1758; in Kurmark, 1765; in Hildesheim, 1765; in Hesse-Darmstadt, 1777. In France, the Parisian institution of 1745 is considered the oldest. (_Beckmann_, Beitr. z. Gesch. d. Erfindd., I, 218.)]