In direct insurance life is, as will be seen, the branch which has the greatest gross premium receipt, the total for Danish and foreign companies being 53 million kroner. For each of the four branches: sickness and accident, fire (real property) fire (personalty), and marine and transport, there is a premium receipt of 20 to 30 millions, whereas the other branches are of less importance. In regard to reinsurance, fire, together with a number of smaller branches, gives the Danish companies a gross premium receipt of about 207 million kroner, marine and transport 125 millions, whereas the other branches together only yield 23 millions in gross premiums.

JOINT STOCK COMPANIES

Under the limited company form there are, as the following table shows, increasing numbers of concerns:

Of the 5970 limited companies registered on January 1st., 1926, 473 were established before 1900, 1536 in the years 1900-1914, 1808 between the years 1915-19, and 2153 in 1920-25. Considerably more than half of the companies have their registered offices in Copenhagen, and these are also the biggest, comprising three-fourths of the total share capital of all the companies. 587 of the companies with a total share capital of 254 million kroner, were in process of being wound up.

According to size of capital and nature of business the companies are divided as shown below:

Number of limited

Paid up Share Capital

More than one-third of the companies are commercial concerns, most of which are small, and a somewhat less number are industrial companies. Of companies with a paid up share capital of 10 million kroner or more there are 7 banks, 3 steamship companies, 3 telegraph or telephone companies, 13 industrial companies and 4 commercial companies.

Limited companies come under a special Joint Stock Companies' Act of 1917, which prescribes regulations as to establishment, increase or decrease of the share capital, acquisition of own shares, presentation of accounts, board of directors, audit and general meeting, as well as winding up, amalgamation and bankruptcy. All limited companies are registered in the Register of Joint Stock Companies, and their balance sheets are sent annually to the Registrar, while every alteration in the management, capital and similar affairs must be notified to the same authority.

THE COPENHAGEN STOCK EXCHANGE

The Copenhagen Stock Exchange is an independent institution for the public sale of stocks, shares and similar securities. There is an ordinary quotation of prices every week day and an extraordinary quotation every Thursday. There may also be a short "after-Bourse". The quotation of prices is made by means of offer and demand between the members of the Stock Exchange, that is to say brokers approved by the Minister of Commerce. Supervision of the exchange is exercised by a Royal Exchange Commissioner. The following figures show the business done at the ordinary quotation during the past five years:

The quotation of foreign exchanges is undertaken in Copenhagen by a special Exchange Committee, consisting of a member of the Committee of the Merchants' Guild and one of the directors of the National Bank. Sight rates are quoted daily on thirteen European centres and on New York.

SHIPPING

As a natural consequence of the shape and geographic situation of Denmark consisting, as it does, of the Jutland peninsula and numerous islands surrounded by waters which are important traffic arteries Danes have always been great sailors, and have from the earliest times been among the seafaring nations of the world. In the latter half of the last century, Danish trade expanded so rapidly that there was a demand for the importation of large quantities of raw materials for the industries and agriculture, and for the exportation of finished products, especially those of agriculture. The shipping trade did not neglect this opportunity. As the following figures show, Denmark's merchant fleet is still among the largest in proportion to the size of the population.

If sailing ship tonnage is converted into steamship tonnage in the proportion of 3.6 to 1, Norway had in 1924 a total of 542 register tons per thousand inhabitants, Great Britain 294 and the Netherlands 218; then follows Denmark as number 4 with 188 register tons per 1,000 inhabitants.

THE MERCANTILE MARINE

The following table shows the size of Denmark's merchant fleet in 1925 and in 1915. Only ships which measure more than 20 gross register tons have been included:

The table clearly shows the two most characteristic movements which are at present going on in the Danish mercantile marine, i. e., the rapid increase of the large motor ships and the transition from sailing vessels to sail-motor ships. The whole fleet in 1925 consisted of 1,848 ships with a total of 1,090,000 register tons, of which 734 vessels, with a total of 993,000 register tons were steamers and motor ships. Nine-tenths of the aggregate tonnage were thus made up by steamers and motor ships (the proportion of motor ships to steamers being 1:5), but whilst the steamer tonnage has only risen from 720,000 tons in pre-war days to 823,000 tons now, the motor ship tonnage has increased from 48,000 to 169,000 tons, that is to say, it has been tripled. The motor ships have been built in Danish yards, and the whole of this development is closely connected with the advance of the Diesel motor industry, which is referred to in the section on Handicrafts and Industries. The motor ship fleet consists for the greater part of large Diesel ships, built for the overseas cargo trade, but smaller motor ships are now also used in regular route traffic.

The largest Danish vessels are steamers. There are four of more than 10,000 reg. tons, which together with three of about 7000 tons are used in regular service to North America with goods and passengers. The vessels next to these in size are only intended for the cargo trade, and many of them run regularly to overseas countries; the majority, however, are employed in the tramp trade. On the other hand, a large number of the smaller steamers are built for combined passenger and cargo traffic between Danish ports and also with neighbouring countries.

Copenhagen is the headquarters of practically all the steamship and motorship owners, a consequence of the centralization of business and intelligence service there. Of the sail-motor ships and sailing vessels, however, by far the greatest number belong to the provincial ports. The towns of Svendborg and Marstal, particularly, have been the homes of a great part of the sailing ship fleet since early times, and the majority of the larger seagoing sailing vessels without auxiliary engines still belong to these towns. As has already been remarked, a very rapid increase of the sail-motor ship fleet is going on; according to the table there are now 40,000 reg. tons as compared with 7,000 tons before the war. This increase takes place partly by the building of

new ships, partly by the installation of motors in older sailing vessels. The latter, however, only applies to the smaller ships. Both the vessels used in the fisheries and the others are for the most part small, and are mainly used in the coasting trade; but there are still about 120 sailing vessels of between 100 and 500 register tons, and 7 over 1,000 tons. The two biggest of these, which measure about 3,000 tons, serve as training ships for

seamen.

Of small craft of less than 20 gross reg. tons there are eight or nine thousand fishing vessels besides a similar number of boats and small craft for other purposes.

SHIPPING BETWEEN DANISH PORTS

The shape of the country has naturally involved that the trade between the various parts of Denmark is carried on to a great extent by water, part of it by means of liners, some of those which serve the principal routes being large modern steamships, while part of it is carried on by means of sail and motor ships. As Copenhagen is the centre of a considerable part of the overseas import trade, liners leave that port at regular intervals for the towns in the islands and in Jutland, and most of these vessels carry both passengers and goods. This liner traffic is maintained almost exclusively by Danish ships, whereas in the coasting trade proper, which is mostly carried on by sailing ships, a number of foreign vessels, especially German, Dutch and Swedish, are employed. In all, about 2 million tons of goods are carried annually between Danish ports, of which Danish ships carry nine-tenths half in steamers and half in sailing ships.

SHIPPING BETWEEN DENMARK AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES In the traffic between Denmark and other countries 10.0 million tons were transported inwards, and 1.8 million tons outwards in the year 1924. About half of the quantity of goods is carried in Danish ships. Naturally sailing ships play only a comparatively small part in the foreign trade, as only one-sixth of the goods are carried in these ships. The total number of ships which arrived in Denmark from abroad in 1924 was about 29,000, of which about half are steamers, representing about 90 per cent. of the inward bound tonnage.