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TONTINE

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 13 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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TONTINE , a See also:

system of See also:life See also:insurance owing its name to Lorenzo Tonti, an See also:Italian banker, See also:born at See also:Naples See also:early in the 17th See also:century, who settled in See also:France about 1650. In 1653 he proposed to See also:Cardinal See also:Mazarin a new See also:scheme for promoting a public See also:loan. A See also:total of 1,025,000 livres was to be subscribed in ten portions of 102,500 livres each by ten classes of subscribers, the first class consisting of persons under 7, the second of persons above 7 and under 14, and so on to the tenth, which consisted of persons between 63 and 70. The See also:annual fund of each class was to be divided among the survivors of that class, and on the See also:death of the last individual the See also:capital was to fall to the See also:state. This See also:plan of operations was authorized under the name of "tontine royale" by a royal See also:edict, but this the See also:parlement refused to See also:register, and the See also:idea remained in See also:abeyance till 1689, when it was revived by See also:Louis XIV., who established a tontine of 1,400,000 livres divided into fourteen classes of roo,000 each, the subscription being 300 livres. This tontine was carried on till 1726, when the last See also:beneficiary died—a widow who at the See also:time of her decease was See also:drawing an annual income of 73,500 livres. Several other See also:government tontines were afterwards set on See also:foot; but in 1763 restrictions were introduced, and in 1770 all tontines at the time in existence were See also:wound up. Private tontines continued to flourish in France for some years, the " tontine Lefarge," the most celebrated of the See also:kind, being opened in 1791 and closed in 1889. The tontine principle has often been applied in See also:Great See also:Britain, at one time in connexion with government life annuities. Many such tontines were set on foot between the years 1773 and 1789, those of 1773, 1775 and 1777 being commonly called the Irish tontines, as the See also:money was borrowed under acts of the Irish See also:parliament. The most important See also:English tontine was that of 1789, which was created by 29 Geo. III. c.

41. Under this See also:

act over a million was raised in Io,000 shares of £See also:loo, 5s. It was also often applied to the See also:purchase of estates or the erection of buildings. The investor staked his money on the See also:chance of his own life or the life of his nominee enduring for a longer See also:period than the other lives involved in the See also:speculation, in which See also:case he expected to win a large See also:prize. It was occasionally introduced into life assurance, more particularly by See also:American life offices, but newer and more ingenious forms of See also:contract See also:nave now made the tontine principle practically a thing of the past. (See See also:NATIONAL.

End of Article: TONTINE

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