HISTORY CHICAGO BOARD OF TRADE 305 



had deep and abiding faith in the city which they had helped to found. 

 They were men of sagacity and their foresight had in it the quahty of 

 intuition. They perceived that this city, situated on the peerless 

 waterways of the Great Lakes and adjacent to the limitless fertile 

 plains of the Mississippi Valley, was destined to be not only a com- 

 mercial metropolis, but also a dominant force in the markets of the 

 world. At that time, Chicago had a population of less than 30,000, 

 the state of Illinois had only 157,000 people, and the United States 

 had not yet attained a total of 13,000,000 population. Today, the pop- 

 ulation of Chicago is, in round numbers, 2,500,000; of lUinois, 6,500,- 

 000; of the United States approximately 100,000,000. Chicago was 

 further removed from New York than we are now distant from the 

 antipodes. Her transportation facilities were of the most meager sort 

 and communication was by the slow-going stage, the infrequent sail- 

 ing vessel or the laboring post-rider. 



If the "manifest destiny" of Chicago was to be worked out, it was 

 necessary that there should be an organized effort to attract trade, to 

 facilitate the transaction of business, and to reduce the hazards of 

 commerce by building up a body of principles which should have the 

 force of law, insuring righteous dealings between the buyer and the 

 seller and banishing chicanery and deceit from the code of trading. 

 Such was the mission of the Board of Trade of the City of Chicago. 



But the objects of these founders of Chicago's greatness were 

 broader than mere self-interest. They grappled with large public 

 problems from the very outset, striving in all possible ways to facili- 

 tate profitable dealings with the farms of the Central Valley and the 

 rpills of the East, seeking to connect Chicago by telegraph with the 

 eastern markets, and in many other ways fostering commercial ad- 

 vancement. 



There is the best possible evidence of the energy with which the 

 little voluntary organization prosecuted its work for the benefit of 

 the city and its citizens; for, in the year after the first meeting in 

 South Water street, the General Assembly of the State of Illinois 

 enacted fostering laws relating to Boards of Trade. In 1850, the Leg- 

 islature enacted a special charter for "The Board of Trade of the 

 City of Chicago;" and nine years later, when events had proved that 

 the grants thus conferred were inadequate for the proper working out 

 of the mission of the institution, the General Assembly enacted a new 

 charter law, giving the corporation the right of perpetual existence 

 and clothing it with very broad power and authority to regulate the 

 trading practices and commercial conduct of the affairs of this market. 



