LLOYD'S AND MARINE INSURANCE.*
IT is to some extent a matter of wonder that no previous attempt has been made to give a popular account of Marine Insurance in this country, and of that great commercial body who are known as "Lloyd's." Not that Mr. Martin's work is popular in the sense that it is superficial, for this book shows great industry and research on the part of its author, and is at times very substantial reading. In some places, indeed, it would have been desirable, * The History of Lloyd's wide Marine Insurance in Great Britain. By Frederick Martin. London : hi•mnillan and 00. 1816. certainly from a literary point of view, if less details had been given, and the writer had generalised a little more. Thus, in his account of the Masters, or Writers, at Lloyd's (p. 275), many unnecessary and uninteresting particulars are detailed, which it would have been quite sufficient to have lightly touched upon. Again, eight pages are taken up by the contents of Lloyd's Hews for 1696 and 1697, which was the first attempt to give the public regular and systematic shipping intelligence. Thus, No. 8, September 19, is as follows : —" News from Barba. does, June 30; Coronna, September 4; Edinburgh, September 8; Dublin, September 9," and so on, for seven or eight pages. One or two specimens of the entries would have been quite enough. In fact, Mr. Martin, as is often the case with enthusiastic finders of unknown materials, occasionally forgets that it is unnecessary to give to the world the whole of his discoveries. There is, no doubt, a natural desire to put the treasures before the public, but at the same time, the discoverer is not altogether the beat judge of their intrinsic value. With these few exceptions, Mr. Martin has un- doubtedly written a careful and interesting book, which, at this moment, is very opportune.
Marine Insurance was first practised in England by the Merchants of the Steelyard. Where the trains of the South- Eastern Railway rush into Cannon Street stood a mass of build- ings known as "the Steelyard," inhabited in media3val times by a body of German traders. "The vast buildings," says Mr. Martin, "on the river-side, as far as they did not serve as stores [storehouses?], for the immense quantities of merchandise collected within, were divided into separate cells, built only for single men, the whole opening out into common reception-rooms." Among these traders, there can be little doubt, a system of marine in- surance was in vogue, and these foreigners may be considered the first persons who regularly practised it in this country. But in those, its earliest days, it was rather a species of mutual insur- ance, than insurance as now understood.
Nor does Mr. Martin neglect the important place which the legal side occupies in reference to the progress of Marine Insurance. Ile tells us how in the time of Eliza- beth an attempt was made, after the departure from England of the Germans and Lombards, to found a Maritime Court, for the purpose of adjudicating upon causes arising "from policies of assurance." This Court was to consist of fourteen Commissioners, six of whom were to be professional lawyers, whilst the other eight were to be "grave and discreet merchants." But it does not appear that the merchants and underwriters in general had much confidence either in the lawyers or the discreet merchants, and this Court was consequently almost useless. Perhaps the small success obtained by this innovation may to some extent serve as a warning against what are popularly known as tribunals, of commerce, because this was essentially a commercial tribunal, in which the commercial element preponderated considerably over the legal, especially as two only of the Judges were to be what are technically called "Common lawyers."
But coming down to more modern times, we find Mr. Edward Lloyd, an enterprising coffee-house keeper, about 1688, located in Tower Street. Like most of the other coffee-houses in the city, this was the resort of persons interested in trade and shipping. But to the individual energy of Mr. Lloyd in obtaining news, and spreading it for the benefit of the frequenters of his establish- ment, may be attributed the fact that Lloyd's became by degrees a species of Underwriters' Club, and thus, once having attained a corporate existence through good management and vast enterprises, ultimately gained a permanent place in commercial history. 'rho other coffee-houses of that period are now merely objects of purely antiquarian interest, and their names are remembered only as indi- cating certain social phenomena of past times. In 1774, the body of merchants now known as Lloyd's migrated to the Royal Exchange, and there they have remained to the present day. By this time
they had obtained a distinct and recognised place throughout the world, as the most enterprising, most honourable, and most wealthy body of Underwriters who existed. As an example of enterprise, it is sufficient to point to the Diana,' frigate, bound homeward from Vera Cruz, on which £631,800 was underwritten by members of Lloyd's. In fact, the history of Marine Insurance is at this period very nearly the same as a history of Lloyd's. Per- haps the most extraordinary story connected with this corporation, or as regards salvage, in maritime annals, is that of the ' Lutine,' frigate, which the author narrates in his eleventh chapter. She was originally a French war-ship, carrying 32 guns, but was subsequently captured by Admiral Duncan. On October 9, 1799, she sailed from Yarmouth Roads, bound for the Texel, laden with a mass of treasure, in the shape of bullion belonging to
a number of merchants. That same night she was lost on the Island of V]ieland, and the whole of her officers and crew were drowned, with the exception of one man, who afterwards died before reaching England. A letter was afterwards written by Lloyd's Committee to the Admiralty, which stated that "a sum of money equal to that unfortunately lost in the ' Lutine ' is going off this night for Hambro'." So that it is rather curious that, as the amount was clearly known at Lloyd's, no accurate information has ever been obtained as to the value of the property which was lost upon the sand-banks at the month of the Zuyder Zee. All sorts of fabulous stories have from time to time been current. But up to the end of the year 1801, £55,700 worth had been saved from the wreck. Then came a period of such stirring European events, that the Lutine,' being buried among the shifting sands of the North Sea, was well-nigh forgotten ; and then, so lately as 1857 and 1858, more treasure, to the amount of £39,203, was realised. The original cargo, it has been estimated, was worth /1,175,000, and therefore it is still possible that Lloyd's may, by some freak of fortune, obtain yet more salvage from the wreck of the Lutine.'
It is difficult in so short a space to do more than give one or two points connected with this interesting book. But it would not be right to omit mentioning the prominent part borne by Lloyd's in regard to the establishment of lifeboats. The first salvage of life was in 1789, when the crew of the sloop Edin- burgh,' of Kincardine, were saved by means of a boat invented by Henry Greathead, a carpenter, at South Shields. But the Govern- ment of the day considered, and did not hesitate to say, that the saving of life should be left to private enterprise. There- fore, in 1802, Lloyd's voted £2,000 to place lifeboats on different parts of the British coast. The matter was then regularly taken in hand by that body, and remained under their control, until placed tinder the management, in 1824, of the National Lifeboat Insti- tution. To have been the primary means of establishing a system of lifeboats throughout England would be enough of itself to show the public spirit which has at all times actuated this great com- mercial corporation. In 1871, an Act was passed to incorporate Lloyd's on a more permanent footing, which clearly and shortly defined the objects of the corporation as it now exists. They consist of three things,—to carry on the business of marine in- surance by members ; to protect their interests in respect of shipping, and cargoes, and freight ; to collect and publish shipping information. With this event may be said to have closed one epoch in the history of Marine Insurance in England. All who read this portion of commercial history must hope that in the future Lloyd's and English Underwriters will maintain the high reputation that they have held for so many centuries, and among so many stirring national events.
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