298 
Gambling in Farm Produce. 
products. Of course there are often many transfers of a lot of 
wheat in markets conducted under the old system of trading ; 
but anything approaching to the number which take place in 
the principal markets of the United States and in Liverpool 
would never have occurred under the old system. Nine-tenths 
of them, and possibly ninety-nine hundredths, are altogether un- 
necessary for distributive purposes. Whether they can be 
defended on other grounds I am not just at the present moment 
considering. It is clear, at any rate, that the vast majority of 
men engaged in the option business are pure speculators upon 
prices, whether they are to be called gamblers or not. When 
fifty men are engaged in a transaction respecting 5,000 bushels 
of wheat, as supposed in an example given above, only the first 
and last can actually handle the grain ; and as for all the rest, 
to all effects and purposes they might just as well have been 
speculating upon a horse-race as upon the price of wheat. 
Connected with the option system is the trick which is 
known as “ cornering.” No doubt corners were effected long 
before options were invented, although they were not known by 
the name at present given to them. It is no new thing for men 
to endeavour to buy up a commodity which is supposed to be 
scarce or likely to become so in order to create a monopoly or 
pai’tial monopoly, and command their own price. But formerly, 
when this was done, it was a case of enormous risk. Moreover, 
it could not be carried out except by men possessed of a large 
amount of capital. But now, under the system of hedging and 
weekly or daily settlements, the risk of cornering is greatly 
minimised, and men are helped by bankers or brokers to effect 
corners, and in many cases men of straw, or at any rate men in 
an utterly unsound financial condition, have managed to carry 
on a corner for some time. It does not follow that such attempts 
at partial monopoly are more likely to be successful than they 
were under the old system of trade. On the contrary, there is 
such an enormous amount of scheming against anything of that 
kind by the men whose interest it is to depress prices, that it is 
probably more difficult to effect a successful corner than it ever 
was before. But the risk to the persons who attempt it is, as 
has been stated, less than it used to be ; while, on the other hand, 
the risk to other persons is much greater. 
So far, I have endeavoured as simply as possible to describe 
the option and future system, to show the extent of its operation, 
and to explain the method in which it is worked. It is time now to 
examine the arguments put forward for or against the system, and 
in doing so I shall condense the evidence given by a number of 
authorities in the United States, and a few in this country. 
