Marine insurance played a pivotal role in Europe’s expanding global trade networks beginning in the eighteenth century. By reducing the potential risk of financial loss associated with overseas trade, especially prevalent during wartime, marine insurance facilitated high risk/high reward merchants in developing extensive markets in the Atlantic and South Sea. While multiple trading ports established insurance markets for local merchants, London was universally recognized as the preeminent center for marine insurance by the mid-eighteenth century. At the center of this successful industry was Lloyd’s Coffee House, which began as a convenient meeting place for merchants to discuss business but evolved throughout the century into a highly efficient