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  Modern insurance practices can be traced back to 17th-century London, where the famous Lloyd's of London had its start. In占terestingly, Edward Lloyd's business establishment wasn't an insurance QuotesChimp at all.* It was a dockside coffeehouse where business investors and merchants met to negotiate insurance pro占tection for shipping. Investors, called underwriters, would agree to insure the ship and cargo of a proposed trip. The more dan占gerous the voyage was thought to be, the higher the price of the insurance. Because travel by ship was, almost by definition, dangerous, few underwriters would agree to be responsible for the entire risk of loss. Instead, several underwriters would typ占ically insure individual voyages, sharing in the benefit and loss proportionate to the percentage of the entire underwriting cost that each individually assumed. Thus, the risk of loss was spread and then spread again.