A History of Lloyd's: from the Founding of Lloyd's Coffee-house to the Present Day

Abstract

LLOYD'S is one of those institutions which was. never really founded but grew into being, and it did not become a corporate body until it had been a power in the land for many years. The person from whom it takes its name had little or no knowledge of underwriting and had no direct connexion with that business: he was, in fact, the keeper of a coffee-house first in Tower Street and then, from 1691, in Lombard Street in the days when coffee - houses were becoming convenient places for business men to discuss their affairs over such refreshment as the houses provided. It was natural that persons of like interest should haunt the same place, and Lloyd's Coffee - house was patronised chiefly by the city merchants interested in marine affairs and in the insurance of the risks connected with the sea. Edward Lloyd and his immediate successors catered for the wants of their patrons and issued a news-sheet giving useful information, and many years later (in 1734) Lloyd's List was established, and the authors state “there can be no reasonable doubt that it was the demand of the underwriters for shipping intelligence that led to its establishment.” The Coffee - house arranged with the Post Office to be exempt from the then heavy charges for delivery of correspondence. So the connexion grew, and even the Admiralty gave information to the master of Lloyd's Coffee-house and sought and obtained information in return. From about 1760 a ‘Register of Shipping’ was kept, and this series of registers developed into Lloyd's Registry of Shipping, an institution independent of Lloyd's.

A History of Lloyd's: from the Founding of Lloyd's Coffee-house to the Present Day.

By Charles Wright C. Ernest Fayle. Published for the Corporation of Lloyd's. Pp. xxi + 475 + 42 plates. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1928.) 25s. net.