History[edit]

Maritime insurance was the earliest well-developed kind of insurance, with

origins in the Greek and Roman maritime loan. Separate marine insurance
contracts were developed in Genoa and other Italian cities in the fourteenth
century and spread to northern Europe. Premiums varied with intuitive
estimates of the variable risk from seasons and pirates.[1] Modern marine
insurance law originated in the Lex mercatoria (law merchant). In 1601, a
specialized chamber of assurance separate from the other Courts was
established in England. By the end of the seventeenth century, London's
growing importance as a centre for trade was increasing demand for marine
insurance. In the late 1680s, Edward Lloyd opened a coffee house on Tower
Street in London. It soon became a popular haunt for ship owners, merchants,
and ships' captains, and thereby a reliable source of the latest shipping news.
[2]
history of marine insurance

Lloyd's Coffee House was the first marine insurance market. It became the
meeting place for parties in the shipping industry wishing to insure cargoes
and ships, and those willing to underwrite such ventures. These informal
beginnings led to the establishment of the insurance market Lloyd's of
London and several related shipping and insurance businesses. The
participating members of the insurance arrangement eventually formed a
committee and moved to the Royal Exchange on Cornhill as the Society of
Lloyd's. The establishment of insurance companies, a developing
infrastructure of specialists (such as shipbrokers, admiralty lawyers, bankers,
surveyors, loss adjusters, general average adjusters, et al.), and the growth
of the British Empire gave English law a prominence in this area which it
largely maintains and forms the basis of almost all modern practice. Lord
Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice in the mid-eighteenth century, began the
merging of law merchant and common law principles. The growth of the
London insurance market led to the standardization of policies and judicial
precedent further developed marine insurance law. In 1906 the Marine
Insurance Act codified the previous common law; it is both an extremely
thorough and concise piece of work. Although the title of the Act refers to
marine insurance, the general principles have been applied to all non-life
insurance. In the 19th century, Lloyd's and the Institute of London
Underwriters (a grouping of London company insurers) developed between
them standardized clauses for the use of marine insurance, and these have
been maintained since. These are known as the Institute Clauses because the
Institute covered the cost of their publication. Out of marine insurance, grew
non-marine insurance and reinsurance. Marine insurance traditionally formed

the majority of business underwritten at Lloyd's. Nowadays, Marine insurance

is often grouped with Aviation and Transit (cargo) risks, and in this form is
known by the acronym 'MAT'.