May i, 1888.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
777 
Mr. Rouse said tin's question had been before 
Minting Lane for ninny years. Two years ago be 
attempted to bring it forward, in order to get an 
association tor the settlement of contracts, as they 
had in Liverpool. At that time the same old arguments 
that were now heard were advanced in opposition to 
the proposal, and the thing fell into abeyance. It 
bad been revived because of the success that had at- 
tended settlement contracts in Havre, Hamburg, New 
York, and other places. Much had been said in opposi- 
tion to the scheme, and if there were no Suez Oanal 
and no electric telegraphs, and if 099 out of every 
thousand contracts in this country were not made for 
forward delivery, ho could understand the opposition. 
(■Applause.) But there was the actual experience that 
the business of tho country was done for forward de- 
livery. The man who bought goods from countries 
that it would take two or three months to bring them 
from was doiug a timo bargain, and that question 
must be settled. This year coffee had reached a very 
high point. Rio coffee had reached about 80s., and 
Messrs. Johnson's telegram came in, estimating tho crop 
at eight and a half millions. He had the figures of all 
the estimates, and tho lowest was about six and a half 
millions for export this year. 'What was the con- 
sequence ? People, being perfectly solvent at the time, 
who had bought coffee, were suddenly faced with a 
drop of about 20s. The whole of the business of this 
country would bo conducted by the purchase and 
sale of produce which was still on the ground in 
India and America, or which had just been harvested, 
and, seeing that that produoe was all sold for forward 
delivery or shipment, was the present state of thiugs 
safe ? 
Mb. Fiogis explained that his firm did not object 
to forward contracts, and thoy had provided selling 
forward deliveries of real produce and the articles 
they dealt in. But they objected to time bargains 
n wlrich it was not intended that produce should pass. 
Mr ROUSE remarked that he was coming to that 
point He had no hesitation in saying that the 
bulk of the business of this country, with the ex- 
ception perhaps of tea and wool contracts, was 
conducted on the principle of selling forward 
prod uee. It must be and would be so, because the 
slulfk was bought from England in the producing 
mar ets instead' of being bought here. Ho appre- 
hended that it was desired by means of the Olearing- 
House to introduce tho principle of settlement, and 
ho supposed that articles would be tendered on for- 
ward contracts. That was done in Havre, Hamburg, 
and Mew York ; five days before the closo of tho 
time specified in the contract, notice could b6 given 
that there would bo a tender of the goods. He sup- 
port^ the Olearing-Housc because he thought brokers 
and merchants and dealers ought to he protected in 
their transactions. At present they were face to face 
with this ditlieulty, that they might have bought an 
article in which a sudden telegram from the other 
side might causo au immense fall, and yet they had 
no means of selliug the article in ootisuming couutries 
eueptal a ruinous loss. (Hear, h« ar.) Let them uot bo 
hypocrites. (Applause.) He believed they all desired 
to join with Ik mi in making buMne-a in Mincing 
Lnne as safe as possible— (hear, hear)— and to cuse 
things t<> g isily. That was why the Cloaring- 
House had been established. Whon the telegrams to 
which ho had referred came in from the States, the 
English people win d off to Havre Hamburg, and 
New York, and sold agaiiiBt the contracts. What it 
was desired to do was to introduce into this market a 
contract on which Itio collue could bo sold. A man 
who lii-ld Rio coffee would be able to go into the 
market and sell agaiust it, because thcrn would always 
bo buyers iu n terminal nnrkvt. 
Shi [Iknuv Pkkk *»id, lie had bum much surprised 
l>y .Mr. Itotise's statement that 090 contracts 
out of every thousand wen. made for future .|. li- 
very. He had made tUOUUndl and tens of llem-ands 
ol contracts, and hi' did not suppose he hail ever 
made a forward contract in his life. Tho Clear. 
ing-Honso did not at protont afloat tho wholtsalo 
dealers >o much aa aomo othora, but ha aoppoiod it 
was to be made to apply in the future to tea and every- 
thing else, and he could not help thinking that it would 
introduce an elcmont of difficulty for the wholesale 
trade such a9 thoy had never before had to face. He 
could 300 no advantage in the scheme. A broker was 
usually a9 wide awake as most people, and, if ho had 
to deal with a shady man who wanted to speculate, 
it almost served him right if he did not inako a margin 
himself. (Hear, hear). 
Mb. Wales (Moffat & Go.,) challenged Mr. Rouse on 
this point, that a very largo portion of tho transac- 
tions in the Havre Clearing-House were in 
respect of coffee, tho dolivcry of which was not 
sought for. (Applause.) It was that element 
which concerned the London brokers and mer- 
chants. He opposed this scheme, not because it 
was new, but because it violated the principle of 
business upon which the whole fabric rested — (hear, 
hoar), — and sought to introduce that element of gam- 
bling, which in business had always been a canker 
eating the life out of it, and which in time might 
destroy it altogeiher. He feared theywero nowadays 
seeking theso new methods of conducting busi- 
ness as a short road to making money, and he was 
quite sure that iu the long run they would not 
answer, because they would drive out of the trade 
the euormcus capital now embarked in it — (bear, 
hear) — and would rend'-r it a business abselutely unsafe 
to follow. Every day of the week they received 
quotations from Havre ten or twelve times, and probably 
the values varied during that short period. 'Was it pos- 
sible to conduct business in the ordinary course of thngs 
when a man was liable, not only from day to day but 
from hour to hour, to fluctuations in tho value of the ar- 
ticle iu which he was dealing ? Nothing could explain 
that constaut variation except that it was the effect 
of gambling. As a member of the trade he had the. 
strongest objectiou to seeing this system brought into 
Mincing Lane. In getting the margin paid iuto this bank, 
a certain sum would be secured; it might be a sum be- 
longing to the persou himself or to his creditors, and 
if the man should come to grief, the bank would hold tho 
money as against all his other creditors. (Hoar, hear.) 
An exporter of coffee in Loudon, he would suppose, ships 
£5,000 or £10,000 worth of coffee to the Continent, 
and is paid by bill. In the meantime he finds that the 
man to whom ho has shipped tho goods is speculating 
in a terminal market, where he has to pay a margin, 
and where, when the price goes against him, he has 
to pay certain further sums, till the total possibly 
reaches thousands. 'Well, the man receives the goods 
from London, and turns them into cash in order to pay 
further doposits into the Clearing-House, and when he 
goes to tho wall, all his ready cash is in this bank as 
against every other creditor. (Applause.) This security 
to tho bank was one of the dangerous elements of the 
thing. Gambling never could be made safe. Every 
attempt towards that end must fail, and it would be far 
better to keep to the old methods. ]f they followed 
the new plan they would bo killing tho legitimate 
trade in an artichi for tho purpose of fe uiing larce 
incomes without the trouble which pertained to all 
proper businesses. Therefore he supported the resolu- 
tion and he trusted that the good sense of tho 
meeting and of the Chamber of Commerce would 
support those who protested against the evils which 
it was proposed to introduce iuto Miucing Lane. 
(Applaum ) 
Mr. W. Von Glkhm observed that this was not a 
question of morals. They wanted to do tho best 
they could for tbo trade of London, am) they 
wanted to get as much coffee as they could to 
London. 'Would coffee he brought to Loudon by 
this terminal business f ("Yes") Could Hr lil 
coffeo bo diverted to this market? He 1>. liovod that 
produce would always find the shortest and cheapest 
way from the producer to tho consumer and no ter- 
minal market would divert it. (Hear, he»r.) The 
function, bo apprehended, ol those engaged in tho 
coffee trade r f Ixmd on wan, as far as they onuhl, to 
distribute Urazil coffeo over the markets of Europe, 
and bo did not think that object would bo served 
lu tho slightest degree by Iran-actions for delivery 
