248 THE BOOK OF WHEAT 



price in the principal markets. He has an intimate knowledge 

 of the visible supply of wheat that is stored in the world's 

 great terminal elevators, and of the wheat that is being trans- 

 ported in car and vessel. His eye is always on the fine waver- 

 ing ratio line between supply and demand, and from its move- 

 ments he determines the form of his price line. The markets 

 make wheat so liquid for him that the banks will advance him 

 money at the lowest rates on elevator certificates in larger pro- 

 portion to their value than they will on the safest real estate. 



The Pit The Chicago Board of Trade is perhaps the most 

 powerful and famous institution which furnishes an organiza- 

 tion for dealing in wheat. When the speculators assemble in 

 the pit, the board become a clearing house of opinion that forms 

 a very picturesque and dramatic institution. Their methods of 

 business are an excellent illustration of development brought 

 about simply by utility.*' The very life of the institution de- 

 pends upon the scrupulous honesty of all its members. It is 

 more profitable for the operators to make certain honest gains 

 than to destroy the institution by endeavoring to make dis- 

 honest ones, and the degree of integrity that can be attained 

 under these circumstances is truly remarkable. Not that 

 brokers and speculators are an unusually upright class of men, 

 as judged by their actions when not operating on the exchange, 

 but that it simply pays to be honest. Any quantity of wheat 

 can be bought on the floor of the exchange by a sign, a nod or a 

 shout, or by a scrawl on a trading card. Either party to the 

 deal could easily claim that the sign had not been noticed or 

 understood, and the contention could not be disproven, nor 

 could the contract be enforced before any court in the land. 

 Considering the great confusion and excitement of the pit, the 

 ease and rapidity with which fortunes are often made and lost, 

 and the many opportunities and temptations for dishonest deal- 

 ings, it is certainly an exceptional record that the Chicago 

 Board of Trade finds it necessary to expel on an average only 

 five members a year. 



The Volume of Transactions. Perhaps 90 per cent of all 

 transactions on the Chicago board are pure speculation, neither 

 side expecting to receive or deliver a bushel of grain. The 

 "spot" sales on the New York produce exchange in 1895 

 amounted to 43,405,076 bushels, while the "futures" amounted 



