(See " Savings Bank.")

Board of Trade of the City of Chicago. A commercial exchange organized and chartered under the laws of Illinois to promote uniformity in the customs and usages of merchants, and acquire and disseminate valuable commercial and economic information. It is a place wherein such commodities as grains, seeds, flour, provisions, etc., are dealt in. Inasmuch as Chicago is claimed to be not only the great grain clearing-house of the world, but also the largest lumber market in the world, and inasmuch as the volume and value of the different grain crops of the West have a direct bearing upon the transportation rates and consequently railroad earnings, and as they generally fix the rate of interest on money, the importance of the "Chicago Board of Trade," and of the information which is distributed broadcast therefrom, can be well appreciated. For here is collected all Information concerning crops; on the bulletin of the Exchange is posted the price of wheat, maize, oats, and provisions in all the principal markets of the world, and this information is spread broadcast for the benefit of both producer and consumer.

One obtains membership by being voted in by the Board of Directors, and upon the payment of an initiation fee of $10,000, or upon the presentation of an unimpaired and un-forfeited membership duly transferred, and by signing an agreement to abide by the rules, etc.

In all trading on the Exchange actual delivery is contemplated by tender of regular "warehouse receipts " representing the commodity in question unless otherwise agreed between buyer and seller.

To insert here all necessary to completely cover the matter of commissions charged by the Board of Trade would occupy too much space, as it varies on each commodity, according to amount and conditions of sale. The usual trading unit in grain is 5,000 bushels, for which the commission is $7.50 for the purchase or sale, or for the purchase and sale; the latter being termed a "round turn."

There is a clearing-house maintained for the convenience of members, conducted in a similar manner to a "stock exchange clearing-house."

The Chicago Board of Trade has issued a very voluminous book, containing not only all the rules in relation to transactions thereon, but an enormous amount of information, statistical and otherwise, which is well worth the perusal on the part of any person who wishes to investigate this subject further.