What is a tontine?

The four answer options can be explained as follows. A “tartine” is a French sandwich, a tocsin is a peal of bells, a toxin is a poison, and a tontine is an investment plan.

In a tontine each investor receives interest on the capital he or she invests and, as each investor dies, his or her share is reallocated among the survivors; on the death of the final investor the trust scheme is wound up.

The tontine plan is named after Neapolitan banker Lorenzo de Tonti, who is credited with inventing it in France in 1653. Tonti put his proposal to the French royal government, but, after consideration, it was rejected. The first true tontine was organised in the city of Kampen in the Netherlands in 1670, and was soon followed by other cities. The French finally established a state tontine in 1689 (though it was not described by that name because Tonti had earlier died in disgrace). The English government organised a tontine in 1693. Nine further government tontines were organised in France, four more in Britain and others in the Netherlands and some German states. In general the British schemes tended to be less popular and successful than their continental counterparts.

By 1800 the tontine had fallen out of favour as a revenue-raising instrument for governments, but smaller-scale and less formal tontines continued to be arranged between individuals or to raise funds for specific projects throughout the 19th century, and, in modified form, to the present day.