Edward Lloyd opened his coffee house in Tower Street in London in 1688. One corner of the coffee shop was reserved for ships’ captains where they could compare notes. Wealthy individuals who frequented Lloyd’s coffee house would each take a share of the risk of insuring the ships and their cargoes, signing their names one beneath the other on the policy, thereby being known as “underwriters”.
To Insure Promptness
It was in Lloyd’s Coffee House that a brass container for the benefit of waitrons was first inscribed with the words “To Insure Promptness”. The idea was that a patron would put an amount of money into the container before sitting down to insure promptness of service from the waitrons. The “to insure promptness” on the container is what we now call a TIP.
