These arrangements were so widespread in the 18th century that the young United States almost ran a tontine itself: Alexander Hamilton proposed a tontine to pay down national debt after the Revolutionary War.
That links to an article written by my father!
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1922216?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
Very nice!
Thank you.
I find this sort of thing an interesting escape from today’s news.