The Oldest Policy of Assurance I have been able to find is mentioned in the 6th Report of the Royal Commission on Historical MSS., where it is catalogued “1604. A Charter partie, An Assurance of fish from Newfoundland.”[65] Mr F. Martin, who wrote an exhaustive book on the _History of Lloyd’s and Marine Insurance_, says: “The earliest English policy of marine insurance, which we have been able to discover, bears date 1613, and though not a document issued actually by underwriters, but, to all appearances, a copy made for legal purposes, with some lawyer’s notes attached, may be found historically interesting. The discovery was—with others subsequently to be referred to—the result of long and laborious researches among the, as yet, only partly known literary treasures of the Bodleian Library at Oxford. The original is among the Tanner manuscripts, numbered 74, fo. 32, and the manuscript is endorsed, ‘Mr Morris Abbott’s pollesye of Assurance dated the 15 of ffebruary 1613, 11 Jacobi.’” A very old policy hangs, framed and glazed, on the wall of the Committee Room at Lloyds, dated 20th Jan. 1680, and it is for £1200—£200 on the ship and £1000 on the goods. The ship was the _Golden Fleece_, the voyage from Lisbon to Venice, and the premium was £4 per cent.! Underwriting marine risks was in private hands, and although the underwriters had, some of them, offices of their own, most of the business seems to have been done at Coffee Houses, such as Hain’s, Garraway’s, or Good’s; and there was also a central office at the Royal Exchange, as is shown by several early advertisements, one of which is the following, from the _City Mercury_, No. 255 (1680): “Whereas Mr Daniel Parrot caused a Politie to be made Septemb. 28 last, on the _Charles of Plymouth_, from Newfoundland to Cadiz, which is subscribed by several Insurers, and the Politie lost, and a new Politie made: It is desired that all persons that have subscribed the Politie would come into the Insurance Office, and subscribe the new Politie, that it may be known who the Insurers are; and if any one has found the old Politie, they are desired to bring it to Mr Tho. Astley, at the Insurance Office on the Royal Exchange, and they shall be well rewarded.”