2.1 To understand how the Lloyd’s market has come to operate it is necessary to have some knowledge of its history. To understand the framework of substantive law, regulation and other legal arrangements in place today it is necessary in particular to consider its development during the past 30 years in some detail. The latter part of this chapter therefore covers the deliberations of a number of committees and working parties, and several recurring themes, at what may seem disproportionate length in contrast to the treatment of more dramatic or glamorous subjects. It is unlikely that anyone would have wished to design from scratch, or be permitted to put in place, in all its details the trading system that operates today; but in 2011 it met specialist insurance requirements from over 200 countries and territories, including 94 per cent of the FTSE 100 and 97 per cent of the Dow Jones industrial average companies,1 so it seems to work reasonably well.