MAGENS, Nicolaus.

An Essay on Insurances, explaining the Nature of the various Kinds of Insurance practised by the different Commercial States of Europe, and shewing their Consistency or Inconsistency with Equity and the Public Good. Illustrated by real and extraordinary Cases, stated at large, with Observations thereon, tending to settle divers doubtful Points in making up Accounts of Losses and Averages. To which are annexed, some brief Hints to Merchants and Insurers concerning the Risks to which Navigation is exposed in Time of War; the King of Prussia's Exposition in relation to the Capture and Detent...

London, J. Haberkorn for W. Baker, 1755. Two vols, 4to, pp. [2], vi, xviii, 562, [2] blank; vi, 714; complete with the final blank in vol. I; the contents leaves bound before the preface in vol. I; mispagination of sheets 3I–3N in vol. II corrected with small printed cancels; even browning to some gatherings, generally towards the beginning and the end of each volume, with occasional light foxing elsewhere; a good copy in contemporary speckled calf, gilt fillets to the covers, spines ruled and blocked in gilt, lacking lettering pieces, short cracks to the joints, spine ends worn, extremities slightly bumped, with the bookplates of John Clevland to the front pastedown (see below); a very attractive copy. First edition in English, a substantially enlarged and revised version of the original text, Versuch über Assecuranzen (Hamburg, 1753). Volume II is subtitled, ‘A Collection of all the Foreign Ordinances of Insurances, and Forms of Policies, translated into English, with Remarks on such Parts as are obscure or defective; all the English Acts of Parliament relating to Insurances, Shipwrecks, Salvages, and Insurance-Companies; the Forms of Policies and Bottomry Bonds; the Conditions of Insurances against Fire, &c. Together with a Summary of all the Treaties of Commerce subsisting between England and Foreign Powers; and some Mercantile Reflections thereon’.The work, printed by Johann Haberkorn, who had set up London’s first German press in 1749, was to lay the foundations of insurance in England. Higgs (478) calls it ‘a valuable work by a very able man’. Nicolaus Magens or Magen, called by Adam Smith Meggens, by Steuart, Megens, and in the Dictionnaire de l’Economie politique, Magends, was a German merchant who lived for many years in England and gained a great reputation in commercial matters. His Universal Merchant (1753; postscript 1756) showed a deep insight into trade mechanisms, and was highly esteemed by Adam Smith; the Wealth of Nations contains six substantial, direct and indirect references to the work.Provenance: John Clevland (1709?–63), M.P. for Saltash and Sandwich, was appointed Joint Secretary of the Admiralty in August 1746, assisting Thomas Corbett, and becoming sole Secretary in 1751. Clevland’s father had been Comptroller of the Navy’s accounts, while his son would subsequently become the Secretary of Greenwich Hospital.Goldsmiths’ 9045; Higgs 975; Kress 5453; ‘Utrecht’, p. 12; not in Institute of Actuaries or Mansutti (but the Library does have a copy).

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