On the Sufficiency of the existing Companies for the Business of Life Assurance; with a List of the Companies at the end of 1852, their Guaranteed and Paid-up Share Capital, &c

Abstract

The question is frequently asked, in what respect competition in life assurance business differs from that in any other trade or profession. It is contended, that in trade the effect of competition is to produce a better article at a lower price—to awaken new tastes and desires in the public, and so to create a market, which, notwithstanding the diminution in the price, may afford larger profits to the merchant, by the greater quantity of the commodity which he can sell or the greater frequency with which his capital may be turned. But there is nothing analogous to this in life assurance, for in truth it is nothing more than a redistribution of the capital of the public—a deduction of the portion which one man may save out of his profits in the course of a long life, for the benefit of the family of another who does not live to save it.