The Real Origins of the Most Important Financial System in the World

A piece of paper just shut down one of the most important waterways on Earth and almost nobody is talking about why.

How much power does the insurance industry actually have? Enough that Iran doesn’t need to sink a single tanker. They just need underwriters to believe they might. I traced this back to where it started: a 17th century London coffee house, where merchants would write a ship’s details on a slip of paper and literally sign their names underneath the risk. That’s the origin of the w