Excerpt from The Principles and Finance of Fire Insurance In the autumn of 1903 I had the honour to deliver a course of ten lectures at the London School of Economics (University of London) on "The Principles, Practice and Finance of Fire Insurance." These lectures were well received, and caused a gratifying amount of interest, not only among those who listened to them, but also among insurance officials outside. I have, therefore, ventured to recast my Lectures in the form of this book, and present the result in the hope that it will be accepted as a serious study in the comparative science of insurance. For many years past I have had opportunities of being in close touch with nearly every branch of insurance business, and it has become a matter of conviction that no one branch can be profitably studied by itself. The great branch of insurance on property known as Fire Insurance is closely akin in many respects to the other great branch of Marine Insurance. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.