Adam Smith：The Wealth of Nations, Book V, Chapter I, Paragraph 1749

The trade of insurance gives great security to the fortunes of private people, and, by dividing among a great many that loss which would ruin an individual, makes it fall light and easy upon the whole society. In order to give this security, however, it is necessary that the insurers should have a very large capital. Before the establishment of the two joint-stock companies for insurance in London, a list, it is said, was laid before the attorney-general, of one hundred and fifty private usurers, who had failed in the course of a few years.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3300
Locator：Book V, Chapter I, paragraph 1749 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Exact match

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