34 



THE MARKET WRECKER— A MENACE. 



Outside of New York, boards of trade furnish no information as lo the extent ot 

 option sales, but they are prodigious and exceed the entire product so dealt in many 

 thousand times, while the •' offerings" which do not mature into even option sales, are 

 hundBds of times as much as the option sales, and it is these limitless offers, as much as 

 sales, which depress prices. If salts were confined to actual commodities and delivay 

 neccssarilij followed maturity of contract, offers ivould be limited by the ainount availaOlt 

 for delivery. Now, however, it is not unusual for as much fiat wheat to be sold in a day 

 as there is of actual grain received in a year. For instance: On the 14th of April, 1890, 

 New York specnlators sold 44,000,000 bushels of fiat wheat, probably more than twice as 

 much as reached that city during the year. While the "offerings" in a single day, at 

 either Chicago or New York, are said to often exceed 300,000,000 bushels, such oflTeringa 

 having the intended effect of depressing prices. Although there is no means of determ- 

 ining the volume of such offerings or sales, yet we can get some idea from a few days op- 

 tion sales of wheat and cotton at New York, as set forth In the following table: 



SALES AT NEW YORK. 



WHEAT. 



1890. 



Aprils 



April 9 



April 12 



April 14 



September 3... 

 September 4... 

 September lo. 



October 22 



October 23 



October 24 



Sales of Ac- 

 tual Wheat 

 Bushels, 



Bushels. 



63,000 



54,000 



1,800 



6,000 



8,000 



32,000 



62,000 



12,000 



64,000 



35,000 



Total., 



I 



337,800 



Option Sales 

 of Fietit 

 ousAVheat 

 Bushels. 



Bushels. 



COTTON. 



„ , , , Option S.'ilor 

 Sales of Ac- Jf j-jc ; , i. 

 lual Cotton. ous Coti.-n. 



Bales. 



18,400 

 2,000 

 10,080 

 44,000 

 8,000 

 6,400 

 7,240 

 4.(100 

 3,000, 

 4,600 



.00(1 

 ,00(t 



000 

 ,000 



000 

 ,000 



000 



000 

 ,000 



000 



Bales. 



125,720.000 



369 



1,.586 

 518 

 328 

 405 



3.206 



86,600 

 150 200 



81,700 

 120,100 



90,600 

 155,80a 



684,000 



This table shows that during the days named, that for each bushel of wheat sold 

 Now York market wreckers sold 372 bushels of liat grain, and for each bale of cotton 213 

 fictions, and that it would require bid 36 days for them to sell options equaling in, amount 

 an average wheat crop and 66 days to sell all the cotton grown in a year. 



RECEIPTS AT CHICAGO. 



•Including calves. 



