CHAPTER XVII

HOLTZSCHUHER, OBRECHT, AND TONTI

ROSCHER would divide all men of note of various ages into two great groups, namely those who cross the borders of their own times and lay the track of the future, whether by improving practice or theory; and those on the other hand, in whom only the spirit of their own age is particularly strongly developed, on whom the stamp of their own age is specially clearly set. To the latter group belong Holtzschuher and Obrecht, for they were among the advance-guard of an age rich in impulses and projects for reform. It is true their own particular projects were doomed to come to no practical issue, partly, no doubt, owing to the stormy nature of the times which produced them. None the less, they claim our consideration for a few moments, as they are not without their significance in the history of life assurance.

Berthold Holtzschuher, whom we shall look at first and in least detail, was born at Nuremberg of an old patrician stock about the year 1510. In 1551 he was burgomaster of the town, and he died there in 1582. His great financial project, which is Roscher, Geschichte der Nationalökonomie in Deutschland, pp. 157, 158.

2 See Lippert, Holtzschuher; Gebauer, Sogenannte Lebensversicherung, pp. 54 sqq.; Ein finanz- und sozialpolitisches Projekt, pp. 717-35, which contains very interesting documents, pp. 721 sqq.

all that concerns us here, seems quite to have failed to gain the appreciation of his contemporaries. It rested on a suggestion for the compulsory insurance of all children of whatever station: the parent was to be compelled to deposit a sum of money, a thaler at least, on the birth of the child, and the latter, on "coming to years" and marrying, was to receive three times the amount as dower. In the event of the death of the child, deposit and interest went to the authorities. I

The plan was to work beneficially in two waysby encouraging thrift it was to serve as a check to the ever-increasing poverty, and at the same time it was to place a considerable capital in the hands of the community which could be employed for the improvement of education and other similar purposes. Certainly the high rate of mortality at the lower ages would favour the assumption that the undertaking would have paid. Holtzschuher reckoned that not half of those born attained to maturity and married, and doubtless he was not very far wrong in his estimate.2 Be that as it may, he was unsuccessful in enlisting the enthusiasm of any of the various town authorities, whom he approached somewhere about the year 1565,3 a failure which, whatever it may have cost them, meant to him the loss of the 10 per cent. remuneration which he reserved for himself. The archives of Hamburg and Lübeck still contain the documents embodying the particulars of his scheme.

1

George Obrecht 4 was born in the year 1547 at

Compare the arrangement referred to by Wilson, Discourse uppon usurye : see Walford, art. "Endowment

Insurances" in the Insurance Cyclopædia.

2 See Ein finanz- und sozialpolitisches Projekt, p. 720.

3 See ibid., pp. 717, 718.

See Lippert, Obrecht; Gebauer, Sogenannte Lebensversicherung, pp. 54, sqq.; Ein finanz- und sozialpolitisches Projekt, p. 719.

Strassburg, and died there in 1612; in 1575 he was professor of law, and in 1593 received the rectorship of the university; he served on the council of the town. As with Holtzschuher, however, his claim to our attention here is his scheme of insurance which, in his case also, was to benefit directly both the treasury and the public.

The idea of a State insurance of children which was also to be revenue-bringing is already to be found in his "Discursus bellico-politicus . written in 1605, but it finds clearer expression in a writing of the following year, entitled " Politisch Bedencken vnd Discurs: Von verbesserung Land vnd Leut, anrichtung gutter Policey, vnnd fürnemlich von nutzlicher erledigung grosser aussgaben, vnd billicher vermehrung eines jeden Regenten vnd Oberherren Jährlichen gefähllen vnd einkummen." It may be worth while to quote from this work at some length. "A ruler," the author suggests, "could decree that, whenever a son or a daughter was born in his domains, the father should be permitted to deposit in the Exchequer a sum of money according to his will, and that such sum should so remain without interest until the son was 24 years of age or the daughter 18. When that age was reached the money should be paid out to the father if he were still alive, or, failing that, to the son or daughter, with the amount added which the sum would have borne at 5 or 4 florins per cent. interest. In the event of the earlier death of the child, the sum should fall to the Exchequer. If, however, there were other children alive or afterwards born who could take the place of the deceased, the money should be no less paid to such, when they attained the required age, than if the

It is not perhaps surprising to find that Obrecht's theories of political science in general were those of the Mercantilists : see Lippert, Obrecht.

payment into the Exchequer had been made in their name. Such a statute would be very welcome to many merchants and others. It would serve to keep the authorities informed of the birth in their domains, and also afford the Exchequer the use of such sums for a considerable time, as well as absolute possession in certain cases. There was also the advantage to parents and children, in that the latter on reaching the given age could confidently look to the Exchequer for dower and means of maintenance, even should the father in the meantime become bankrupt and ruined. The authorities, however, must see to it that all money which comes to them by such means be separately administered, and lent out against pledge at a moderate rate of interest, in order that when the time comes they may have the wherewithal to meet their obligations. For otherwise the scheme would be of small profit either to the State or to its subjects." I

Substantially the same thought is the subject of a third work entitled: "Constitution und Ordnung von einem hochnützlichen Aerario liberorum, in welches von den Eltern allerhand Summen Gelts, fürnemblich ihren neugeborenen Kindern und in eventum ihnen selbs, auch der Obrigkeit und gemeinen Wolfahrt zum Besten angelegt werden, sampt allerhand Erklärungen und 2 Kinderrechnungen."

It may be argued that there was nothing very original about either of the schemes outlined above: probably both obtained their inspiration from Italy, where the montes pietatis had already arrangements of a similar nature. At the same time it must be borne in mind that with the Italian institutions it was from first to last a question of how best to obtain funds for the object which had 1 Pp. 23 sqq. quoted from Gebauer, Sogenannte Lebensversicherung, pp. 55, 56.

led to their being formed, namely, that of making loans. It was from the loans that the public was to derive the real benefit, and not from the payment of insurance sums to their children. That was merely one means among others to an end.

Holtzschuher and Obrecht, possibly enough, also regarded their own schemes primarily as a means of raising revenue, for the purpose of reforms of various kinds, in which case the analogy with the montes pietatis is a close one. But at the same time they were far-reaching social projects. Their promoters had realised this much, that insurance could be made a self-supporting institution, and obviously the great good which would be wrought thereby in the cause of the encouragement of saving was strongly in their minds. The crowning advantage, however, which their proposals possessed over the devices of the lending-houses, is to be found in the fact that, whereas in the main the operations of the latter in this particular were probably comparatively small and had an application strictly local, what was projected in Germany was an application of the principle to spheres sufficiently extended to allow scope for the working of the law of averages. And the extension of the practice was to be aided by some degree of compulsion, or by the guarantee of the community, or both. may be worthy of remark that, both here and in the case of the montes pietatis, the presence of a condition requiring the marriage of the beneficiary rather than the attainment of a given age did not introduce the same element of uncertainty into the contract as such a stipulation would at the present time. Probably in those days practically all marriageable people did marry, and at a comparatively early age. Holtzschuher, at any rate, treats it as quite an understood thing.1

Ein finanz- und sozialpolitisches Projekt, p. 720.

It