Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-10-20
MAKERS OF PRICES.
Eomething New to Solomon-.-Tle
Dance of Speculation.-Crean
cries Of the World Of
Labor.
North American Review.

North American Review.
While only one bushel in seven of ths
wheat crop of the United States is received
by the produce exchange of New York, its
traders buy and sell two for every one that
comes out of the ground. When the cotton
plantations of the south yielded less than
6'OOO,GOO bales, the crop on the New York cot
Ton exchange was more than s., 100000. Oil
wells are uncertain, but the flow on the
petroleum exchanges Of New York, Bradford,
and OIL City never hesitates. Pennsylvania
does well to run %, 900 900 barrels in year,
and New York city viii do as much in two
small rooms in one week, and the petroleum
exchanges sold altogether last year z, COG, 000, :
600 barrels.
When the Chicago board of trade was
founded, its members were required TO re-
cord their transactions. The dance Of spec
uIa1on has nowadays grown to be 50 RAPID
that no count is kept Of the steps. The
board was lately reported to have turned
over as much wheat in one day as the whole
state Of Illinois harvests In a twelemonth.
Its speculative hogs outnuulber two to one
the live hogs in the United States, and it Is
safe to say that the board raises five bushels
OF grain to every oos that IS produced by the
farmers Of the West. Securities have be-
come as staple an article Of production with
Us as wheat, cotton, oil or hogs One MI
lion dollars worth q Gay OF new stocks and
bonds Is needed in prosperous years to sup
ply the demands Of the New York stock ex-
change, and its annual transactions are
nearly thrice the taxable valuation Of all the
personal property in the United States.
One Of the things that would be new to
Solomon, if he lived to-day, is the part
played by the modern exchange IN thu dis
G1bution OF the products of labor, and the
redistribution Of wealth. The honest indus
Try that bulbs Up our greatest fortunes is
raising wheat and pork on the Chicago board
Of trade, mining on the San Francisco stock
exchange, building railroads in Wall street,
sinking oil wells in William street, and pick
ing cotton in Hanover square. While the
text books Of the science Of exchange are
describing in infantile prattle the imaginary
trade Of prehistoric trout for pre-Adamite
venison between the FIRST hunter and the
first fisherman, the industry of the cotton
plantation, the oil fields, and the farm is be-
ing overlaid by an apparatus Of exchanges
which viii prove an extremely interesting
study to the Ricardo of, say, the twenty
LlL0 century
These exchanges are the creameries of the
world of labor. The prices Of the speculative
wheat and the special hog of the board Tx
those Of the real whe.t and the actual hog Of
the field. The negro planter of Georgia who
raises his bale and half must sell it for what
the cotton exchange says it isworth. The man
who works in the ground must take the
price fixed for him By the man who works in
the air. No onecan understand the corner"
who does not comprehend the development
and reach Of the exchanges Of our time. The
manufacture OF prices, like other modern IL
,sastries, is being concentrated into vast es-
Establishments, and these are passing under the
rule of bosses and sy'rdicates. The markets,
Ike political parties, arer un by the machine
The people are losing the power OF making
prices as well as nominations.