367] THE BUTTER MARKET I4 3 



and more to consign their product directly to commission 

 merchants. But in the absence of a well-established market 

 price, this method proved to be quite unsatisfactory to the 

 producer. Many complaints to this effect were made at 

 that time against the commission merchants. For instance, 

 at Elgin, 111., " previous to the organization of the board 

 in 1872, the goods had been disposed of on commission, 

 and by the time the freight, cartage, storage, shortage, and 

 several other ' ages ' known to the trade, had been deducted 

 from the shipments, the manufacturers found that the ac- 

 counts for sales were very short, and occasionally they 

 found themselves indebted to the commission man, and 

 they had nothing to pay the milkman or their help 'V The 

 dealers of the city had of course a decided advantage over 

 the producers in the country. The former were fairly well 

 informed as to prices, while the latter were groping in the 

 dark. Under these circumstances it was an easy matter for 

 the commission man to make exactions that were perhaps 

 justly denounced as unscrupulous. But it must be remem- 

 bered that the trouble lay not alone with the market ma- 

 chinery. Manufacturers generally had not yet learned to 

 make regularly butter of good quality ; and when short re- 

 turns were made by commission men for this reason, they 

 were of course unjustly accused. 



This more or less chaotic condition of the trade led to 

 the establishment of the organized markets, known as 

 boards of trade or exchanges. Of these there are two types, 

 the producers' exchange and the middlemen's exchange. 



THE ESTABLISHMENT OF PRODUCERS' EXCHANGES 



The earliest producers' exchanges where dairy products 

 were sold, were established primarily for the sale of cheese. 



1 " Report of the Illinois Dairymen's Association " in the Transac- 

 tions of the Department of Agriculture for 1880, p. 352. 



