40 BULLETIN 1444, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
The centralizing markets for American cotton in the United 
States are mainly the cities in the cotton territory of the South and 
Southwest. The following cities are usually considered as large 
markets: New Orleans, Dallas, Houston, Galveston, Memphis, and 
Savannah. There are many others, such as Norfolk, Atlanta, Little 
Rock, Oklahoma City, Waco, Fort Worth, Columbia, S. C, Raleigh, 
Greenwood, Miss., St. Louis, Augusta, and Montgomery, which are 
the headquarters of important firms and in which branch offices of 
other large firms are located. There are many other centralizing 
markets which do a large business, such as Helena and Pine Bluff, 
Ark. ; Austin and Paris, Tex. ; Meridian, Miss. ; and Macon, Ga. 
Men who perform the services characteristic of this type of mar- 
ket are called merchants and shippers. They buy cotton from buyers 
in the local markets and from the growers and sell it to dealers, 
mills, and foreign importers. In addition, there are a few cotton 
factors who represent large growers, small-town merchants, and 
others, who sell to the merchants and shippers, and there are a few 
f. o. b. dealers and commission men who usually represent local 
buyers and large planters but who will buy or sell for anyone. 
ORGANIZATION 
The centralizing markets are city unit organizations, but the firms 
that constitute the organizations have connections running both into 
the spinners' markets on the one side, and into the smaller concen- 
tration and local markets on the other. The larger firms do not con- 
fine their activities to a single market. Some of them accumulate 
large stocks of cotton. These large firms have partners, branches, 
or representatives in most of the important centralizing markets. 
To carry their cotton until it is needed, the merchants do a great 
deal of hedging. The larger ones have membership in one or more 
of the futures markets. They maintain branches, partners, agencies, 
or other connection in all important spinners' markets. From the 
few large firms there are gradations down to the firm or individual 
who operates in only one of these central markets. The small firms 
sell to dealers in spinners' markets or to the larger merchants and 
exporters. The small operators are in the majority in numbers but 
not in percentage of total business transacted. 
The statement of the purposes of the Houston Cotton Exchange, 
as given in its charter, is fairly typical. It says : 
The purposes of this association shall be to provide and maintain suitable 
rooms for a cotton exchange an,d board of trade in the city of Houston, to 
inculcate just and equitable principles of trade and commerce, establish and 
maintain uniformity in the commercial usages of the city ; to acquire, pre- 
serve, and disseminate valuable business information ; to adopt rules, regula- 
tions, and standards of classification which shall govern all transactions con- 
nected with the cotton trade, and with other commodities where standards 
are required ; and generally to promote the interests of the trade and increase 
the facilities and the amount of business of the city of Houston. 26 
The requirements for membership vary somewhat between associa- 
tions. The organization is maintained by fixed annual dues, and 
fees are charged per bale on all cotton bought by the members, with 
the occasional exception of transactions between members. 
28 Constitution, By-Laws, and Rules, Houston Cotton Exchange and Board of Trade. 
