LLOYD'S. The corporatidn of Lloyd's, which in March 1928 entered into possession of a fine building erected for it from the designs of Sir Edwin Cooper, F.R.I.B.A., upon the site of the East India House, is an ancient London institution in which all forms of insurance, excepting life insurance, can be effected. Its constitution and methods are unique because the corporation as such does not subscribe policies, the risks being accepted by in dividuals each signing for a specified sum for which he alone is responsible. Policies can be subscribed only by underwriting members each of whom has before election to place with the cor poration securities to an amount fixed by the committee, in no case less than £5,000 and in most cases much more, the amounts required being proportionate to the magnitude of the business un derwritten. Elaborate precautions have been taken to render the security of Lloyd's policy impregnable. The liability of each individual is unlimited. Each underwriter's accounts are subjected to an annual audit and there is a system of mutual guaranty by which the individual underwriter's resources are supplemented to a strictly defined amount by policies subscribed by other under writers. In 1927 the total amount of securities deposited was .110,414,729 and the amount guaranteed to LI r,5oo,000.
Lloyd's has for two centuries been a centre for the collection and diffusion of maritime information. At every seaport of any importance and at many inland towns throughout the world Lloyd's agents are established to collect information, to give assistance in casualties and to survey and assess damaged cargo. There'were in 1927 1,500 such agencies and sub-agencies. Lloyd's has also established signal stations of which in 1927 there were 28 in Great Britain and 134 abroad. Wireless information reaches Lloyd's from all the coast wireless stations in the world.
insurance, instead of going from office to office in search of insur ers, to go to a coffee house where, instead of only one, several insurers might be found. At this time this was the only means of placing marine risks, but in 172o charters were granted to the London and the Royal Exchange Assurance Corporations, but no other companies nor partnerships were allowed to insure marine risks. The grant of these charters was strenuously opposed by private underwriters but it had the effect of conferring a monopoly, and, as the Corporations transacted a comparatively small amount of marine insurance, the virtual monopoly thus created became a powerful factor in stimulating the growth of insurance by individ uals. As Lloyd's coffee house gradually became the centre for such insurance its power and importance developed during the early 18th century. In 1696 Lloyd printed a news sheet called Lloyd's News which, however, was soon dropped owing to its publication of an erroneous statement of no importance in a report of the pro ceedings of the House of Lords. Lloyd's News was not a special ized shipping paper and it was not until '734 that Lloyd's List was established. This was devoted mainly to shipping news and as it has appeared continuously ever since it is the oldest London news paper excepting the London Gazette. In the meantime, Lloyd had died in 1713 but the coffee house in Lombard street (on part of the site now occupied by Coutts' Bank) was carried on under the same name, a name which has survived all the vicissitudes of the institution which bears it and which has been adopted all over the world as that of a sort of tutelary genius of shipping. It is for example curious to note that an air fleet in Germany, the "German Aero Lloyd," bears the name of an English coffee house keeper of the 57th century.