| By the early 1600s, the City of London was already a hive of thriving international business activity, and brokers engineered a host of deals between buyers and sellers or traders and ship owners.
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| Back then, these brokers were inclined to be ‘jacks of all trades and masters of none’. Not very highly respected, the City authorities took action and limited the brokers to only 100. To be admitted into this exclusive group, individuals had to swear an oath that they would ‘deal justly and fairly on behalf of their respective principals’ – hence the expression ‘Sworn Broker’. |
| For the next 200 years, this system policed the activities of brokers but gradually it began to die out. No one is entirely sure why but it is believed that the self-regulation imposed by membership of the Baltic Club could have been the answer. That 19th century coffee house developed into the Baltic Exchange. |
| The Institute’s history, in turn, developed from the Baltic Exchange. The Baltic was to be able to provide ‘a market’, which shipbrokers needed, but they wanted more than just in the City of London. Although London was then, as it is today, the main centre of the world’s dry cargo chartering, a considerable amount of chartering was also evident along the British coastline. |
| Brokers associations had developed all over Britain in many of the main port areas – several of our
branches today have archives relating to when they were local associations. |
| By 1910, members of these local associations were talking about creating a united organisation – and that was the beginning of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers in 1911. |
| Its stated aims were:
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| To protect and promote, by co-operation, the general welfare and interest of shipbrokers |
| To discuss, consider and report subjects of interest to shipbrokers and to communicate with the Chambers of Commerce and other public bodies |
| To promote or oppose legislative and other measures affecting the business of shipbrokers and to consider, originate and support improvement in maritime and commercial law |
| To consider all questions affecting the interest of persons engaged in the business of shipbrokers |
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To provide better definition and protection to the profession and business of shipbrokers by a system of examination and issue of certificates |
| It was this last activity – to set standards by examination – that convinced the Privy Council that the Institute was a serious professional body, and on 21st January 1920, it was announced that by ‘Special grace and certain knowledge of His Majesty King George V’, the organisation was incorporated by the Royal Charter and would hence be known as the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers. |
| In addition to providing an education, the Royal Charter insists upon a system of discipline so that any member acting in a discreditable manner would be censured, suspended or even expelled. This is still the case but thankfully, rarely needed! |
| As many ICS members worked abroad in Commonwealth countries, they started to open new branches – something which had been foreseen in the Charter. Membership was open to anyone from the British Commonwealth as well as the UK. |
| The rapid development in trade and shipping following the World War II, resulted in shipbrokers becoming even more specialised. Many companies which previously handled only tramps or tankers, responded to the demands for agents made by the rapidly expanding number of national shipping lines, many of which were owned by recently independent members of the British Commonwealth, thus Liner Agency became an important branch of shipbroking. |
| To cope with this high degree of specialisation, ICS modularised its examination syllabus and sub-divided shipbroking into six ‘disciplines’ - dry cargo chartering, ship operations & management, tanker chartering, ship sale & purchase, liner trades and port agency. |
| A growing demand by countries outside the Commonwealth, led to the Privy Council granting a Supplemental Charter in 1984 which permits membership to be offered to citizens of any country in the world. |
| The same Charter enabled the Institute to offer a new class of membership – Company Membership. This enabled many new initiatives including representation on official committees such as HM Customs and various port authorities. |
