Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 November 2014
Towards the end of Mr. Brown's term of office as President I submitted to him the Table which appears in the appendix to this paper asking whether he thought it of sufficient interest for publication in our Transactions. Mr. Brown replied by inviting me to go further and write a paper for the Faculty on the subject of Investments using the Table as an illustration of past history. Later our present President supported this idea and the notes which I now have the honour to submit are the outcome. Apart from the fact that I dealt with the history of Life Offices' Investments at some length when addressing the Students' Society a few years ago, it seemed to me that something more than a historical survey was desirable. There are few papers in our Transactions dealing with Investment Policy and this was the subject on which I decided. I think that the correct prelude to a discussion of Investment Policy is its own history, and so I give in Part I of this paper a very short general survey of the years from 1871 to 1935. The Table in the appendix will give information additional to what is contained in my remarks to those who wish to go further.
page 252 note * Since these notes were prepared, there has been a rise in interest rates and also in commodity prices.
page 256 note * The following quotation from the report of Bailey's remarks on Mackenzie's paper to the Institute in 1891 are of interest in this connection:— “ … it being now hardly possible as in former times to obtain investments in which the principal was secure with a reasonable rate of interest, insurance companies must act as private investors would, namely, they must go on the Stock Exchange, and not have all their eggs in one basket, but they must be prepared to run risks of fluctuation in value.”
page 273 note * Insurance Funds and Their Investment. Paish & Schwartz (1934).
page 283 note * The figures in the Table are taken from the Board of Trade Returns deposited in the year so that “1898” has been added.