Largest British Corporation

The Prudential Assurance Company, Ltd., is the largest corporation in Great Britain or in Europe.* Its total assets now amount to $790,000,000, and its last year's income to $168,500,000. It has almost 25,000,000 policies now in force.

The Prudential was founded in 1848 in London, by a group of public-spirited men who wished to do away with the expensive and often fraudulent burial clubs of that day. The insurance business already existed, but it partook of a reckless and unscientific gambling character and its methods were frequently crooked and coldblooded.

The first year, Prudential's income amounted to only $1,555. In 1851 Henry Harben, its famed Secretary, entered the Company. Harben practically created the modern insurance business of Europe by preaching popular thrift through insurance, and raising the ethical standards of the business. So rapidly did the Company's income mount in the 60's that it was once attacked in Parliament by Gladstone. Harben showed that the Prime Minister was mistaken, and the latter was forced to retract. Harben also inaugurated scientific industrial insurance, and was the first to gather actual statistics regarding health and deaths.

Last year Prudential realized 6% on its investments before taxes. It has placed 77% of its funds in British securities, 15 1/2 in Indian and Colonial, and 7 1/2 in foreign securities. The latter item consists mainly of American bonds.

*The largest corporation in the U. S. is the American Telephone & Telegraph Co. (TIME, June 2).