ox FUTURE DEALINGS IN RAW PRODUCE. 427 



the wheat actually tendered against these dealings, does not necessarily 

 imply that every quarter of imported wheat has to bear the weight of a 

 score of commissions to brokers for handling futures-contracts. 



It seems hardly necessary to repeat at length what has been sufficiently 

 often made clear, that the futures- contract entered into by a dealer who 

 actually proposes to demand delivery of, or make a tender of, the produce 

 represented by it, cannot be distinguished from the contract entered into 

 by a dealer who does not propose to handle either the goods named in the 

 contract or any other goods in respect of the price-variations of which 

 the said contract may be used as a hedge. The point may be made clear 

 by giving an example of the actual form used, selecting for that purpose 

 the following : — 



No. 26.— FUTURE DELIVERY CONTRACT— AMERICAN RED WHEAT. 



THE LIVERPOOL CORN TRADE ASSOCIATION, 



LIMITED. 



•" s 



23 



5| 



si 

 ay' 



LIVERPUOL, 189 



We have this day SOLD to on the 



§.| terms of the Printed Rules of the Liverpool Corn Trade Association, Limited, 



■" say Centals American Red Wheat 



(grown East of the Rocky Mountains in the United States of North America 

 a and Canada), of quality not lower than the Standards of No. 2 Winter or 

 -a 2 No. 2 Spring, as adopted by the Liverpool Corn Trade Association, Limited, 



5 o and in force for the specified time of delivery, at per 100 lb. 



§ ^ to be delivered during ex store, in Liverpool, or, at 



■|3 Sellers' option, in Birkenhead at an allowance to the Buyers of One Farthing 

 3 S per cental. The Wheat to be in fair merchantable condition ; a slight dry 

 |.° warmth not to be objected to. 



Payment — as per Rule 8, allowing interest equal to three months from date of 

 being ready for delivery. 



This Contract is made betrveen yourselves Mid ottrselves, and ')iot hy or with 

 any person, mliether disclosed or 7i,ot, on whose instructions or for whose benefit 

 the same may have been entered into. 



o g 



Amended 18th October, 1897. 

 In force on and after 1st January, 1898. 



Entered at Stationers' Hall and sold only at the 

 Clearing House of the Association. 



The examination of this form will suflSce to show that it would be a 

 practical impossibility to distinguish the simple gambling from the (so- 

 called) legitimate dealings for the purpose of suppressing the former. 



Apart from objections to gambling as gambling, the allegations as to the 

 effect of modern dealings in futures appear to attribute to them influences 

 of two kinds : (a) that they tend to depress prices, and are in fact respon- 

 sible for much of the fall in price of such commodities as wheat and cotton 

 which has taken place in the last twenty-fiye years ; (6) that they cause 

 market-prices to be much less steady than they would be if left to be 



