THE PRICE OF WHEAT 251 



As Chicago is the great center of the wheat trade, it is the 

 most advantageous place for running a corner, and the Chicago 

 Board of Trade has been the scene of the great corners. The 

 first one was run by B. P. Hutchinson in 1867. He bought the 

 million bushels of contract wheat stored in Chicago warehouses, 

 and all of the options, or privileges, that he could induce the 

 shorts to sell. At the maturity of their contracts, the sellers 

 were unable to deliver the wheat which they had sold. They 

 " walked to the captain's office," and settled their accounts 

 at $2.85 per bushel. Within an hour after they had settled, 

 the price of wheat fell 50 cents, and within a day it fell 90 

 cents. It was an attractive manipulation, and looked easy. 

 John B. Lyon repeated the operation Suring the next year, and 

 the price rose to $2.20 per bushel. In 1872, Lyon started an- 

 other corner, but the Northwest now had more wheat than he 

 could control with his limited capital. The corner broke ruin- 

 ously, and within two days the price fell 50 cents. Corners were 

 run on the Chicago board in 1880, 1881 and 1882, but they were 

 of no great magnitude. 



In 1887 a mysterious "bull clique " was buying strongly of 

 the May option. The clique was variously accredited as being 

 John W. Mackay and his bonanza friends; as the Standard Oil 

 millionaires; and as E. L. Harper and some of his Cincinnati 

 associates. The conflict between the clique and the trade re- 

 sulted disastrously to the former. When the wreck was cleared 

 away, E. L. Harper was found in the debris. Accused of looting 

 the Fidelity National bank of Cincinnati, of which he was 

 vice-president, he was sent to the Ohio penitentiary, but was 

 subsequently pardoned. 1 The last chapter of the corner was 

 written in 1906, when the United States circuit court rendered a 

 verdict against E. L. Harper for $5,280,333 in favor of the re- 

 ceiver of the Cincinnati bank. 2 



Another corner put wheat to the two dollar mark in 1888. 

 This was a corner in September wheat, and B. P. Hutchinson 

 was again a prominent manipulator. He figured that not more 

 than three million bushels could be delivered to him on his 

 contracts, but this amount was exceeded by 330,000 bushels on 

 the last day of September. It was these, and not the three 



1 Payne, Century, 65:748. 



2 Wall St. Jour., Jan. 6, 1906. 



