Lloyd's of London

"This book traces the history of Lloyd's from 1688 to the present time. It describes the transition from Edward Lloyd's seventeenth-century coffee-house, by very gradual stages, to the unique insurance market of today. First the genuine coffee-house, then the coffee-house plus facilities for the ship-owners and travellers; the meeting-place for marine brokers and underwriters; the removal to the Royal Exchange; its activity during the Napoleonic wars; its dabbling in fire insurance; its great service to fire and accident business during the present century; and the debt that present members of Lloyd's woe to their predecessors. It is the story of how a collection of individuals has been able to combine the enterprise of individual trading with the financial strength of a great insurance market."--Jacket.