Editing Lloyd's of London (section)

===17th–19th centuries: Formation and first Lloyd's Act===
[[File:Microcosm of London Plate 049 - Lloyd's Subscription Room edited.jpg|thumb|The Subscription Room in the early 19th century]]

The market began in [[Lloyd's Coffee House]], owned by Edward Lloyd, on [[Great Tower Street|Tower Street]] in the [[City of London]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Marcus|first=G. J.|title=Heart of Oak: A Survey of British Sea Power in the Georgian Era|year=1975|page=[https://archive.org/details/heartofoaksurvey0000marc/page/192 192]|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0192158120|url=https://archive.org/details/heartofoaksurvey0000marc/page/192}}</ref> The first reference to it can be traced to the ''[[London Gazette]]'' in 1688.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Coffee and commerce 1652–1803 |url=https://www.lloyds.com/about-lloyds/history/coffee-and-commerce |access-date=27 January 2024 |website=Lloyd's}}</ref> The establishment was a popular place for sailors, merchants, and ship-owners, and Lloyd catered to them with reliable shipping news. The coffee house soon became recognised as an ideal place for obtaining marine insurance. The shop evolved into a meeting place for people of all types of maritime occupations, who would make bets on which ships would make it back to port. Soon, the captains of ships that were suggested to fail to return were betting against the return of other ships.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}} It was the start of Lloyd's insurance. During this time, the coffee house was also frequented by mariners involved in the [[Atlantic slave trade|slave trade]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=schivelbusch |first=wolfgang |title=tastes of paradise}}</ref> Historian [[Eric Williams]] noted that "Lloyd's, like other insurance companies, insured slaves and [[slave ship]]s, and was vitally interested in legal decisions as to what constituted 'natural death' and 'perils of the sea'".<ref name="Williams1994">{{cite book |last1=Williams|first1=Eric |title=Capitalism and Slavery|date=1994 |publisher=University of North Carolina Press|location=Chapel Hill |pages=104–105 |isbn=9780807844885 |url=https://archive.org/details/capitalismandsla033027mbp|access-date=25 September 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> Lloyd's obtained a monopoly on maritime insurance related to the slave trade and maintained it until the [[Slave Trade Act 1807|abolition of the slave trade]] in 1807.<ref name="Williams1994"/>

Just after Christmas 1691, the small club of marine insurance underwriters relocated to No. 16 [[Lombard Street, London|Lombard Street]]; a [[blue plaque]] on the site commemorates this. This arrangement carried on until 1773, long after the death of Edward Lloyd in 1713, when the participating members of the insurance arrangement formed a committee and underwriter John Julius Angerstein acquired two rooms at the [[Royal Exchange, London|Royal Exchange]] in [[Cornhill, London|Cornhill]] for "The Society of Lloyd's".<ref name=Brown>{{cite book|last=Brown|first=Antony|title=Cuthbert Heath: Maker of the Modern Lloyd's of London|year=1980|publisher=George Rainbird Ltd|location=London, W1|isbn=0-7153-7942-9|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/cuthbertheathmak0000brow}}</ref> In July 1803, the [[Lloyd's Patriotic Fund]] was established by a group of Lloyd's underwriters.<ref name="c376">{{cite book | last=Barton | first=Mark | last2=McGrath | first2=John | title=British Naval Swords and Swordsmanship | publisher=Pen and Sword | date=2013-07-03 | isbn=978-1-4738-2221-4}}</ref><ref name="v937">{{cite book | last=Glover | first=Gareth | title=Nelson's Navy in 100 Objects | publisher=Frontline Books | date=2021-07-30 | isbn=978-1-5267-3135-7 | page=277-279}}</ref><ref name="z281">{{cite book | last=Martin | first=Frederick | title=The History of Lloyd's and of Marine Insurance in Great Britain | publisher=The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. | date=2004 | isbn=978-1-58477-451-8 | page=217}}</ref>

{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = Lloyd's Act 1871
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of the United Kingdom
| long_title            = An Act for incorporation the members of the Establishment or Society formerly held at Lloyd's Coffee House in the Royal Exchange in the city of London, for the effecting of Marine Insurance, and generally known as Lloyd's; and for other purposes.
| year                  = 1871
| citation              = [[34 & 35 Vict.]] c. xxi
| introduced_commons    = 
| introduced_lords      = 
| territorial_extent    = 
| royal_assent          = 25 May 1871
| commencement          = 
| expiry_date           = 
| repeal_date           = 
| amends                = 
| replaces              = 
| amendments            = 
| repealing_legislation = 
| related_legislation   = 
| status                = 
| legislation_history   = 
| theyworkforyou        = 
| millbankhansard       = 
| original_text         = https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/Vict/34-35/21/contents/enacted
| revised_text          = 
| collapsed             = yes
}}
The [[Royal Exchange, London|Royal Exchange]] was destroyed by fire in 1838, forcing Lloyd's into temporary offices at [[South Sea Company|South Sea House]], [[Threadneedle Street]]. The Royal Exchange was rebuilt by 1844, but many of Lloyd's early records were lost in the blaze. The '''{{visible anchor|Lloyd's Act 1871}}''' ([[34 & 35 Vict.]] c. xxi), the first Lloyd's Act, was passed in [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] which gave the business a sound legal footing. Around that time, it was unusual for a Lloyd's syndicate to have more than five or six backers; this lack of underwriting capacity meant Lloyd's was losing many of the larger risks to rival insurance companies. A marine underwriter named Frederick Marten is credited for first identifying this issue and creating the first "large syndicate", initially of 12 capacity providers. By the 1880s Marten's syndicate had outgrown many of the major insurance companies outside Lloyd's.<ref name=Brown/>