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* EXCHANGE. 342 EXCHEQUER. marked a degree to speculation. Persons buy and sell without contemplation of future de- livery, but with reference to a future jjriee. Settlements are expected and made, not by de- livery of the goods, but by adjustment of the difference between the contract price and the price ruling in the market at the maturity of the contract. Stocks, bonds, cotton, wool, grain, hides, pro- visions, and a few other commodities can be bought and sold in this fashion. Of these, the first and second are particularly adapted to such transactions, and stock exchanges are ac- cordingly the most widely disseminated form of exchanges. In the United States separate ex- changes generally exist for them, while the other commodities may be handled by a general prod- uce exchange, or by separate organizations, de- pending upon certain historical antecedents or upon the importance of the staple in question for the trade of a particular place. Stock exchanges and produce exchanges have many points of organization and procedure in common, but as stock exchanges are treated in a separate article, we shall confine our explana- tions here to produce exchanges, illustrating their methods and purposes by some' account of the New York Produce Exchange. This organization was originally chartered April 19, 18G2, as the New Ynrk Commercial Association. Its purposes are declared by its charter to be "to provide and regulate a suitable room or rooms for a Produce Exchange in the city of New York, to inculcate just and equitable principles in trade, to establish and maintain uniformity in commercial usages, to acquire, pre- serve, and disseminate valuable business informa- tion, and to adjust controversies and misunder- standings between persons engaged in business." In 1808 an act amendatory to the charter changed the name to the New York Produce Exchange, while a further act of 1S82 added to the declared purposes, that "to make provision for the widow- and families of deceased mem- bers." The conduct of the affairs of the organ- ization is vested in a board of managers con- sisting of the president, vice-president, treasurer, and twelve other managers elected annually by the association. The charter authorizes the board of managers to elect annually an arbitra- tion committee composed of five persons not mem- bers of the board, whose duty it is to hear and decide controversies between members. On filing the award of the committee in the Supreme Court of the County and City of New Fork, judg- ment is entered according to the award. From such award there i- no appeal except for frauds, collusion, or corruption of the arbitration com- mittee or of its members. Other committees are named by the president. Of these, one of the t important is the complaint committee, which take-, cognizance of all duly entered com- plaints against members. This body endeavors to conciliate the disputants, or induce them to re orl to arbitration, failing in this it may. if circumstances warrant. bring the matter lie fore the board of managers, which may, when the charj i tin I the defendant are substantiated, by vote of two thirds of the members present, cen sure, suspend, or- expel him from the exchange. Other important committees are those on trade, which ha to do with commercial usages, and the committee on information and statistics, In addition to the managers and various commit- tees, there is a superintendent of the exchange cnarged with the details ot management, the care of the building, and similar duties. Annual as- sessments of not less than ten or more than thirty dollars, as the board may direct, form the lusis of the revenues of the exchange. In addition to general rules as to memoership and the like, there are a series of special rules for the trade in provisions, lard, grain, flour, seeds, petroleum, oil, butter, cheese, and hops, maritime trade and steamship trade. These rules have much similarity, though they differ according to the nature of the business in ques- tion. Each set of rules defines standard grades in the commodity to which it refers. Thus in the rules governing the provision trade we find exact descriptions of what is meant by such familiar market terms as mess pork, prime mess pork, extra prime pork, and the like. The rules define also the quantities in which such goods shall be bandied, and modes of packing and curing. They provide a system of inspection, and the board licenses inspectors to carry it out. Standard forms of contract, rules as to settle- ments, and similar matters are features of the rules. Far more complex are the rules govern- ing the grain trade, but they do not differ in spirit. Each exchange makes its own rules, such as are adapted to the locality in which it is situ- ated, but for the same kinds of trade the rules have much in common. This is particularly true of all rules fixing definitions, as the various ex- changes strive here especially to secure uni- formity. An important function of all ex- changes is the dissemination of information. Not only are the market reports published daily in the papers prepared under the supervision of the exchanges, but annual reports embracing a vast amount of statistical information are fre- quently published. See Stock Exchange; Speculation. EXCHEQUER, Chancellor of the (OF. cscheker, Fr. ichiquier, checker-board, alluding to the checkered cloth on which accounts wire reckoned, from OF. eschecs, Fr. cchec, chess, from Pers. Sah, OPers. teSayaSiya, Skt. ksatriya, king, from ksi, to rule). In Great Britain the bead of the Treasury Department. He must be a member of the Lower House, which holds control of the purse. When the Prime Minister is a member of the House of Commons, he sometimes holds the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer. The judicial functions of the Chancellor, which be- fore the eighteenth century were of great im- portance, have disappeared. Sec ExCHEQUEB, < curt OF. EXCHEQUER, Couet of. An English law court of great antiquity and importance, wherein matters relating to the royal revenues were adju- dicated. It is said to have existed from the early times of the Conquest, and is supposed to have been denominated the 'exchequer' from tin' fact that a chequered cloth was wont to he laid upon the (able of the court. Under the Norman kings it was a branch of the I ula Regia, "r Greal < ouncil of the Nation. From the reign of llcnn III. its existence as a separate court was recognized. Its special business continued to be the decision < > f revenue eases, but from ii In period the court showed a tendency to