Exhibition explores how London turned fire and coffee into an insurance industry

In 1700s London, if you needed household insurance to protect your home from fire, you had to visit a place that sold “essence of old shoes”. That unlikely location is where the London insurance market began, and a new exhibition explores its origins and how it spurred London’s emerging financial markets.Of course, what we are talking about are the coffee shops, and famously Lloyds, where Edward Lloyd started by importing coffee from Yemen and roasting it.
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