It was he who collected the premium money given by the merchants and held the money in trust and paid the losses suffered by the merchants in their maritime adventures out of those funds. When the total amount of insurance was "underwritten" in the slip, the contract was complete. From this practice comes the term "underwriter" still in use today and the coffee house of Lloyd has grown into the unique institution known as "Lloyds of London" an institution by itself and the largest in the world comprising something like 630 syndicates and is a corporation with statutory authority capable of writing insurance of any kind.