158 Corn and Corn Products Trades 



speculation as corn, nor has am- a more widely organized market. 

 These facts result from peculiar equalities of the ware (as pointed out 

 above), \dz. it allows bulk-handling, can be stored for long periods 

 without deterioration, can be graded into different classes in accord- 

 ance with the demand for certain standard qualities, and there is an 

 extensive, inelastic demand for it. These qualities made possible the 

 jobber and his practices: he bought in bulk, he stored in his granaries, 

 he sold by sample, and he was sure of a market. He could contract for 

 future delivery because he was sure he could get the same kind and qual- 

 ity for which he bargained. The grades of the ware were recognized on 

 the market as having certain specific qualities respectively, and con- 

 tracts could be made for "English Middling" or other grade though 

 the contractor did not then have it on hand. Thus grading made 

 possible a special form of speculation, i. e. dealing in "futures." 

 Sample-sales were the intermediate step between bulk-sales of un- 

 graded corn and the modern sales on the basis of tariff-classification 

 or standardization.^ They were also a means of separating the place 

 of sale and the place of handling the ware, i. e. of dividing the market 

 into two distinct economic parts for the convenience and advantage 

 of both. The Corn Exchange and the elevator, granary or ship were 

 related to each other by the sample of grain and transfer slip, and 

 no essential economic disadvantage was caused by the greater or less 

 distance between them. 



MERCHANT. 



It is impossible to distinguish with any precision the corn merchant 

 from the corn jobber. Their operations overlap and fuse into each 

 other. Both are speculators, though the jobber limits himself to one 

 market more than the merchant. The jobber speculates more in 

 time-relations, the merchant in place-relations: the jobber buys and 

 sells according to his estimates of the future prices on the particular 

 market \\dth which he is concerned; the merchant buys and sells on 

 many markets — home and foreign — according to the prices prevail- 

 ing or likely to prevail on each of these markets. In other words, the 

 merchant is a dealer in bulk doing an import and export business. It 

 is these foreign relations which especially characterize the merchant 

 class. Dealers doing a domestic business only are in strict nomencla- 

 ture tradesmen. The businesses of the two are generally combined. 



Until the close of the fifteenth century England produced a surplus 

 of corn for export; between 1500 and 1660 imports possibly exceeded 



' Schmoller, Grundriss. IT, 35. 



