Chapter 51: Insurance and Risk

Chapter 51: Chapter 51: Insurance and Risk

I

Constantinople, Emin?nü — 12 May 1913

Zeynep brought a new sheet to the evening table, and she had ruled it into three columns headed fire, sea, and theft.

"Five sheds now hold six thousand and four hundred reams, which is nearly two thousand liras at cost," she said. "If one of them burns, we lose the paper, the shelves, and the buyers who were waiting for it."

Ayaan read the columns slowly.

He thought of the wooden quarters of the port towns, where one lamp could destroy a street in an hour, and he kept the thought to himself.

"Elias, which loss is the likeliest?" he asked.

"Fire in the sheds and water on the road, Efendi," said Elias, who had been sorting letters at the side table. "Theft is the smallest of the three, though clerks fear it most."

"Then we shall buy insurance against the first two," said Zeynep. "But I do not wish to buy it blindly."

"Why not?"

"Because a premium is a price, and every price should be compared." She drew a line beneath the last column. "I would ask three agents for their terms before we sign anything."

II

Constantinople, Galata — 21 May 1913

Agop Kalfayan received them in his back office, where a thin man in a black coat waited with a leather case of policies.

"Signor Rossi acts for the Generali in Galata," said Agop. "He has insured half the warehouses on this hill, and he has paid out on most of them."

Rossi opened his case and laid out two printed forms.

"Fire is nine parts in a thousand of the value each year, and sea cargo is one and a half in a hundred for each voyage," he said. "The company pays within sixty days of a proved loss."

Zeynep read the forms through without speaking.

"This clause excuses the company if the loss comes from the negligence of the insured," she said. "What is negligence, Signor?"

"An unlocked door, a lamp left burning, a watchman who is asleep." Rossi spread his hands. "The company must protect itself."

"Then we shall prove that our doors are locked," said Zeynep. "And I wish also to bear the first twenty liras of every loss myself, for a lower premium."

Rossi raised his eyebrows and wrote a note.

"Few merchants ask to bear more risk," he said.

"Few merchants have read the clause," said Agop dryly, and he poured the coffee.

When Rossi had gone, Ayaan asked Agop whether the other two agents would offer better terms.

"They will offer lower figures and harder clauses," said Agop. "The cheapest policy is often the one that pays the least on the day of the loss."

Zeynep marked the Generali form with a small cross and set the other two quotations beside it for comparison.

"We shall read all three before we choose," she said. "The clause will decide it, and the figure will not."

III

Smyrna — 9 June 1913

Elias made the journey to Smyrna with a coil of rope, a measuring cord, and a list of nine requirements.

Isaac Molho met him at the shed with a boy carrying a tray of lemonade.

"You have come to inspect the building again," he said. "I thought you had finished with it in February."

"I have come to make it safer for the insurers, Molho Efendi, who are harder to please than the landlord." Elias walked to the rear wall and looked up at the eaves. "No lamp shall enter the shed after sunset, and the watchman shall carry a closed lantern only."

Over the next three days he had four barrels of sand set along the walls, with a leather bucket hung above each. He cut a second door into the side of the yard so that no clerk could be trapped behind the stock.

He also hired a night watchman named Dimitri, a retired fireman of the port who had lost two fingers to a boiler and none of his attention.

"Where shall I sit?" asked Dimitri.

"Where you can see both doors and the loading yard," said Elias. "You will walk the wall every hour and write the time on this board."

Dimitri read the board and nodded with approval.

"A man who writes the hour cannot say afterwards that he did not know it," he said.

IV

Constantinople, Rüstem Pa?a — 25 June 1913

Cevdet came to the warehouse office before noon, which was early for a man who preferred the evening.

"A broker in Smyrna has been asking questions about your policy," he said. "He wished to know the date of inspection, the name of the watchman, and the hours of the walk."

"A broker has no reason to ask for those," said Ayaan.

"No reason that is honest." Cevdet folded his hands upon the head of his stick. "The broker drinks at a café where Herr Brandt’s interpreter is a regular guest."

Zeynep put down her pen.

"They are not asking so that they may help us," she said.

"They are asking where the watchman is not," said Cevdet. "I would not frighten the clerks, but I would double the walk for a month."

"It will cost four liras more in wages," said Elias, who had been listening from the door.

"Then it will cost four liras," said Ayaan. "Write to Dimitri tonight, Elias, and tell him to keep the board in plain sight."

"And the harbour officer?" asked Zeynep. "If something should happen, his statement will matter more than any policy."

"I shall send him a letter of introduction tomorrow, with a copy of the rules," said Elias. "An officer who has read the rules in advance will not doubt the board afterwards."

V

Konya — 1 July 1913

Hasan met Ayaan at the shed in Konya with a small notebook, and he kept both hands upon its cover.

"Efendi, I have bought four barrels and eight buckets, and I have taught the porters where each one hangs," he said. "I have also made a drill, and I have timed it."

"What does the drill require?" asked Ayaan.

"At the sound of the bell, two porters take the buckets, two carry out the account books, and I lock the strong room." Hasan swallowed. "The first time, it took eleven minutes, and now it takes six."

Salih Efendi, who had come to watch, laughed aloud and clapped his nephew upon the shoulder.

"He has been afraid of fire since the day he began to keep my books," he said. "I told him that the fear would one day be worth money."

"It is worth money now," said Ayaan. "The insurer will ask for the time of your drill, Hasan, and I shall tell him that it is six minutes."

Hasan wrote the figure at the head of a fresh page, and he underlined it twice.

Before the evening train, Ayaan walked the length of the yard with Salih and measured the distance from the shed to the nearest timber store.

"It is forty paces," said Salih. "Why do you count it?"

"Because the wind blows from that side in summer, and forty paces is not a wall," said Ayaan. "I would ask the owner to move his timber, or we shall pay him to build a screen of brick."

VI

Smyrna — 14 July 1913

The night was dry and hot, and the wind came from the sea after midnight.

Dimitri walked the rear wall at two o’clock and noticed a smell of lamp oil that did not belong to the yard. He stopped and held up his lantern.

A bundle of rags had been pushed against the base of the boards, and a dark shape crouched beside it with a match in his fingers.

Dimitri did not shout, for he judged that a shout would only send the man running with the match alight. He stepped forward and kicked the rags away from the wall, and then he struck the man’s wrist with the lantern.

The match fell into the dust and went out.

The man ran for the gate and was gone down the lane before the second watchman could reach him. Dimitri stood over the rags and called for the sand, and the clerks of the shed came running in their nightshirts.

By dawn the rags had been soaked in a bucket and carried to the harbour office, where an officer took Dimitri’s statement and wrote the hour at the top of the page.

"He wore a grey coat," said Dimitri. "I did not see his face, but I saw that his boots were good."

VII

Constantinople, Galata — 29 July 1913

Signor Rossi came to the Compact’s hall with the report of the company’s inspector, and he laid it before Zeynep with a certain reluctance.

"The Generali has read the statement of the harbour officer, and it has read the board with the hours written upon it," he said. "The company holds that no negligence can be found."

"And the policy?" asked Zeynep.

"It stands, and the company will lower your fire premium to seven parts in a thousand for the sheds that follow the rules of your clerk." He cleared his throat. "My directors have asked whether the House would permit them to print those rules for their other clients."

Ayaan glanced at Zeynep, and she gave the smallest nod.

"The House has no objection, Signor, if the rules are printed in full and the name of Elias Benveniste is printed beneath them," he said. "He drafted every page."

Hac? Arif, who sat at the end of the table, struck the board lightly with his palm.

"Efendis, I say that every member of the Compact should keep these rules," he said. "A merchant who is insured and careless is a danger to his neighbours, and a merchant who is insured and careful is a credit to them."

"Then let it be a condition of the fund," said Agop. "A member who wishes to draw upon the fund must show that his shed has sand, a watchman, and a board."

The motion passed without a dissenting voice, and Zeynep wrote it into the minutes.

Afterwards, in the corridor, Ayaan spoke quietly to Cevdet.

"The man in the grey coat will try again somewhere else," he said.

"Perhaps, but he has learned that the House is watched at night," said Cevdet. "That is a useful thing for a thief to know."

VIII

Constantinople, Emin?nü — 15 August 1913

The sea policy was tested sooner than anyone had hoped.

A coasting steamer carrying four hundred reams from Trabzon struck a rock near Sinope in a storm and returned to port with half her cargo wet. Osman, the young clerk, wrote the claim in a neat hand and sent it by telegraph the same day, with the count of the reams and the date of the loading.

The Generali paid in forty-one days, less the first twenty liras that Zeynep had agreed to bear.

She laid the draft upon the table in the evening and set a second sheet beside it.

"The loss was one hundred and ninety liras, and we recovered one hundred and seventy," she said. "Without the policy, we would have lost the whole sum, and the Trabzon shed would have stood empty for a month."

"And the twenty liras?"

"I entered it as the price of being careful." She smiled a little. "It is a small price, and it keeps us from claiming for every scratch."

Ayaan read the three columns once more and saw that the third had been filled in at last.

Under theft she had written only a single line: Two keys, two men, and a board that is read aloud.

Mehmed ran in from the garden with a toy boat in his fist and laid it on its side upon the table.

"It has struck the rock," he said seriously.

"Then it must be insured," said Ayaan, and he lifted the boy and set the boat upright.

Later, when the house was quiet, he opened the notebook beneath the window.

A merchant cannot remove every danger, but he can learn its price and decide with open eyes whether to pay it.