Towns > Glasgow > 1828-1912 - Post-Office annual Glasgow directory > 1857-1858

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EXTRACTS FBOM REPORT FOB THE YEAR 1855.
" It is satisfactory to say that the only variation in the duty of tlie Directors
on this occasion is to present a statement exhibiting a still more favourable result
than it has ever been their good fortune to announce for a like period of time, since
the commencement of the business of the Establishment.
" With respect to the Life Branch, it is hardly a matter of surprise that the
additions made to the existing Policies in that Department in August last, in
the shape of a bonus of unusual extent, should have attracted the attention of the
Public, both in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. It is, however, believed, that
Few could possibly have anticipated such au Xueirease of Business
as has accimed to the Company since that time^
" The increase of the Annuity and Endowment Accounts (hitherto forming but
small branches of the business) presents a still more striking contrast, comparing
past years with the last 12 or 18 months. The Purchase Money for Annuities
received in 1855 exceeds that of the preceding year more than three-fold, |^j|,3
whilst the amount of Premium for Endowments received within tlie last 6 months
is 297 per cent, in advance of the entire year 1855.
" Indeed, there is abundant evidence to show that the favourable notices which
have been taken of the Company during the last year, to an extent entirely with-
out parallel, consequent on the success of the Life Fund and the large Bonus it has
been able to afford, have not only procured to that Branch an increase of business
to the extent announced, but have given a fresh impulse to the Fire Department.
They have, in fact, created a large addition to a Revenue which had already
arrived in magnitude at a point to which
dnly some Two ox Three, out of all the numerous £om.pauies
established in the Empire, during the last 150 Years have attained.
" It is believed that a statement of the growing extension of the Company's
Receipts could not have had a more perfect corroboration than that which has
opportunely been presented by the ' Government Returns of Assurance Companies,'
published under Parliamentary authority, within the last few days.
" An inspection of the accounts contained therein will reveal the fact, not only
that the Royal Insurance Company
Far exceeds in its Fire Business all other Companies subsequently
estAblishedi
But that, with the exception of one London Company founded under the auspices
of the Legal Profession, the amount of Fire Premium stated in this Report to have
been freely declined by this Company in the year 1855, exceeds, in itself alone, an
entire moiety of the largest, and is actually more than the total revenue of most
Fire Insurance Companies established within the last eleven years.
" The Directors have never made a Report of the affairs of the Company with
a clearer conviction that its statements will give entire satisfaction to the Pro-
prietors, and full confidence to the Public."
The Morning Herald Money Article, of August 7, 1856, says : — " From the
report of the annual meeting of the Royal Insurance Company, which appears in
another column, we observe that their revenue from fire premiums during the past
year amounted to
£130,000,
"i,£0!Ne THEW jWiONOST THE LARGEST EMCtiSH PIRE OFFICES.
Their profits on this branch during the same period appear to have been sufficiently
large, amounting to £42,849, which warranted a dividend of 5s. per share, equiva-
lent to 12J per cent, on the original capital, while a sum, nearly equal to the amount
of dividend, ^N-Ai carried to the reserve fund, and written off against the amount V>j
expended in rebuilding their offices in London and Liverpool. This Company, ''^^
tlierefore, appears to have met with even more than its proverbial success during
the past year. The prosperity of the life branch appears to have been equally
remarkable. We commented last year upon the successful result of this Company's
life business, which enabled them to declare a life bonus rarely equalled in amount.
A main element in the great pi-osperity of this Company's life branch appears to be
that it is comparatively unweigJded tvitli those exjienses which press so heavily upon
many life ojfces, as the fire branch, from its magnitude, relieves it of tie larger
proportion of the general expenses of the Company."