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Rh established here, the merchants either took the risk of these losses themselves, or else effected an insurance with private capitalists, who, for a consideration, would guarantee them against loss. This was, during the last century, the usual method of marine insurance practised both in this country and in England, where the custom which long prevailed, of exposing the name and description of vessels upon which insurance was asked, at Lloyd's Coffee House, for the capitalists who congregated there to lorite under their names and the amounts they were willing to venture, has caused the terms "Lloyds" and "underwriting" to be permanently identified with the business of marine insurance. Upon the removal of the embargo in 1809, besides the reopening of the old channels of trade, the neutral shipping of America was largely occupied, from that time until the outbreak of the war with Great Britain in 1812, in sup- plying the English army in Spain, which it was found necessary to provision chiefly from this country. The prosperity of Baltimore at this time was not maintained solely by a foreign and carrying trade. The imports, which were far beyond the requirements for home consumption, could not have been disposed of, if a market had not been found for them beyond the limits of the town, nor could the demands for export have been met, if produce and cereals had not been drawn from the agricultural regions of the interior. Its central position, its accessibility as an inland seaport, and the direction of the water-courses, made Baltimore the first, as it is still, the natural market for the AVest. The western trade, which, before the Revolution, had been conveyed on the backs of pack-horses, walking in single file through the narrow paths which led across the mountains, now required for its transportation the huge canvass- covered "Conestoga" wagons, which, with their teams of six or eight horses, and jingling bells, used to traverse the old Braddock's road and the turnpikes that had been constructed as far as the navigable waters of the West. The relics of this old method of transportation may yet be discerned in the immense yards, made for the accommodation of these wagons and teams, attached to a few of the old inns in Baltimore that have yet escaped the march of improve- ment. The actual growth of Baltimore during this period is best indicated by the increase in the population, which, from the United States census reports, we are now able to observe by decades. In 1790, the population numbered 13,503. In 1800, it had increased to 31,514, and in 1810, to 46,555. A considerable accession had been made, in 1793, by the arrival of French refugees, to the number of about 3,000, from Cape François. Besides the increase in the population, which this arrival made, it was of benefit to Baltimore as the means of stimulating that West Indian trade, which contributed so greatly to the prosperity of the city during this period. The tonnage of the town, which, soon after the adoption of the Federal Constitution, was reported as 36,305 tons registered vessels, and 7,976 licensed and enrolled, had increased