The Lloyd's Act of 1871 gave Lloyd's of London a formal legal constitution, establishing it as an incorporated society of individual underwriters, with formal rules for claims, loss adjustment, and market conduct.

The formalisation of Lloyd's coincided with the Victorian expansion of global trade and empire; the market's language of 'good faith', 'material disclosure', and 'indemnity' entered the moral vocabulary of Victorian literature, which was deeply engaged with questions of commercial honour and obligation.