Wagers, Coffee & Cakes

What are the Odds

Insurance companies don’t take bets on death. Seems clearly illegal, but they do something similar.  Both parties come to an agreement and money changes hands for a LIFE Insurance policy.  

Insurance and gambling goes back thousands of years.  The code of Hammurabi has clauses about bartering a type of insurance. Merchants would borrow money to fund a ship’s voyage and be protected if the ship sank.

Coffee, Cakes and Selfies

Posting pictures and drooling over cakes and coffee seems like an Instagram trend but in the late 1600s men would gather at Edward Lloyd’s small coffeehouse on Tower St, near the London docks to network & gossip.  He created a newsletter called Lloyd’s List with lots of info about ports, tides and ships.  His coffee shop in London became known as THE place for getting Marine Insurance.  Men would gossip, drink coffee and tea and place bets.  There were  auctions and they would insure ships.  The insurer would draw up a contract and sign his name underneath - now known as underwriting. 

Edward Lloyd’s small coffee shop became known as the place for obtaining marine insurance. Lloyd grew to became a pioneer in Insurance - Lloyd’s of London.  Today Lloyd’s list is only available in digital format.

Would you like a Chocolate Croissant  or a Glazed Donut with that coffee?

Source: BBC 

To hear more about this check out BBC podcast 

BBC Podcast 50 things that made the modern economy: Insurance

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