The world’s largest insurance market began in a coffee house.

1686 · 1691 · apart: 5 years

In 1680s London, sailors and merchants drank coffee at Edward Lloyd’s, heard the shipping news and insured cargoes on the spot: that was Lloyd’s.

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The event

• Lloyd’s Coffee Housec. 1686 · London. Around 1686 Edward Lloyd opened a coffee house frequented by sailors, merchants and shipowners. He published shipping news, cargoes were insured at its tables, and so began Lloyd’s, the world’s great insurance market.

17th century

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