Notices and letters of general interest were posted
therein. Many merchants, brokers, and underwriters, especially
those whose houses had been burned in the fire, conducted their
business at their coffee house and used it as their business
address. Men in marine insurance and shipping met at Lloyd's
Coffeehouse, which was run by Edward Lloyd who established it for
this purpose in 1687. Lloyd provided reliable shipping news with a
network of correspondents in the principal ports at home and on
the continent and circulated a handwritten sheet of lists of
vessels and their latest movements at his coffeehouse. The patrons
cheered safe arrivals and shared their grief over ships lost. They
insured their own risks at one moment and underwrote those of
their friends the next. Auctions of goods and of ships and ship
materials which had been advertised in the newspapers were
conducted from a pulpit in the coffeehouse.
French wine was consumed less because of heavy taxation and
spirits and beer were consumed more. The streets were alive with
taverns, coffee houses, eating houses, and hackney coaches past 9
p.m. at night. Coffee houses were suppressed by royal proclamation
in 1675 because "malicious and scandalous reports" defaming his
majesty's government were spread there, which disturbed the peace
and quiet of the realm. But this provoked such an uproar that it
was reduced to a responsibility of the owner to prevent scandalous
papers and libels from being read and hindering any declarations
any false and scandalous reports against the government or its
ministers.
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