Section Ccxxxvii (_c_).

FIRE INSURANCE.

The present system of fire insurance has been introduced in many places by the establishment of so-called domanial fire-guilds (Domanial-Brandgilden), by which the country population on crown-lands bound themselves to mutually assist one another by furnishing thatch, and horse and hand power in the rebuilding of burned houses. Whatever was wanting after this was made up by gratuitous supplies of wood from the public forests, by the granting of governmental fire-licenses to beg (begging letters), by permission to have collections made in the churches[237c-1] etc. The next step was generally the establishment of public insurance (Landes-Assecuranz) only for houses,[237c-2] but with compulsory membership. This compulsion was justified by the continuing interest of the state in the payment of the house-tax, as well as by the interest of the eventual owner of the estate, and of hypothecation-creditors.[237c-3] [237c-4] The insurance of moveable property is much more recent, both by reason of the nature of the property itself, which becomes of importance only at a later date, and also on account of the much greater difficulty of carrying on such insurance.[237c-5] The thought of making this species of insurance compulsory, or of turning it over to the state, has seldom been suggested.