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COMMODITY EXCHANGES

COMMODITY EXCHANGES. The enormous expansion of markets after 1850 required the formation of organizations that could handle exchanges of commodities on a large scale. The buyers and sellers of commodities in every city and market of large commercial importance formed boards of trade, also known as chambers of commerce. In 1848, buyers and sellers of commodities organized the Chicago Board of Trade. The New York Produce Exchange was organized two years later. By 1854 the Merchants Exchange of Saint Louis had the characteristics of a modern exchange. In 1870 the New York Cotton Exchange came into existence, while the New York Coffee Exchange was organized in 1882.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ferris, William G. The Grain Traders: The Story of the Chicago Board of Trade. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1988.

Lurie, Jonathan. The Chicago Board of Trade, 1859–1905: The Dynamics of Self-Regulation. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1979.

Fred M. Jones/A. E.

See also Clearinghouses; Commodities Exchange Act; Exchanges; Grain Futures Act; Pit.