Trade board

“ The National Board of Trade, as its name implies, is National in character, and is composed of a large number of Boards of Trade, Chambers of Commerce, and other organized bodies representing many of the large commercial and industrial centers of the entire United States. ”

“ Such of the appointed members of Trade Boards shall act on each Trade Board or district trade committee as may be directed by the Board of Trade, and, in the case of a Trade Board for a trade in which women are largely employed, at least one of the appointed members acting shall be a woman :
Provided that the number of appointed members acting on the same Trade Board, or the same district trade committee, at the same time, shall be less than half the total number of members representing employers and members representing workers. ”

“ Where a Trade Board has been established for any branch of work in a trade, any reference in this Act to the trade for which the Board is established shall be construed as a reference to the branch of work in the trade for which the Board has been established. ”

“ Enough of the Act has been summarized to show that it imposes on contract markets, under the supervision of the Secretary, (1) duties of preventing or controlling certain trading practices and of supervising transactions in futures contracts, and (2) some responsibility for standardizing deliverable warehouse receipts and assuring their integrity. The failure or refusal of a board of trade to comply with the provisions of the Act or any of the rules and regulations of the Secretary is cause for suspension or revocation of the authority of the board to act as a contract market. ”

“ The only ones who make money on the board of trade are the company who rents offices, the cigar man, the lunch man, and the telegraph operators, and the commission men who get one-eighth of a cent a bushel either way the market goes. Some of these commission men get the speculation bug and go broke, and yet there are callow youths and business men and clerks and other outsiders who believe they are smart enough to speculate on the Board of Trade. That belief helps fatten our penitentiaries. ”

“ Membership on the Board of Trade is different from a mere chose in action, like a simple claim or debt asserted against another, and only to be enjoyed after its satisfaction enforcement. It is a continuously enjoyed 'incorporeal right.' Hyde v. Woods, supra. The Board of Trade is the member's trustee, while it maintains and holds all its facilities for his use and enjoyment. ”

“ One of the most promising things that the Board of Trade had done to foster exports was to set up an Industrial Supplies Department with the specific duty of determining the competing claims upon raw materials advanced on behalf of the home civilian market and the export market. ”

“ The demands of the importing departments for foreign exchange were met by the Treasury, after they had been scrutinised by the Exchange Requirements Committee, a body set up on 29th August 1939 with representatives from all the importing departments, the Treasury, and the Bank of England. The demands of private importers were controlled by the Import Licensing Department of the Board of Trade. ”

“ This body is probably as powerful a working-class organization as exists in the world, composed as it is of the unions of more than fifty different trades, all knit compactly together under an executive known at first as the Operatives' Board of Trade, and now as the Trades' Hall Council, and quartered in a spacious mansion-house erected by the trades themselves on a site presented to them by the Government. ”

“ It was the prototype of all the other chambers of commerce and boards of trade which have since been established in the United States, and which are said to exceed 1000 in number. American trade organizations are associated in a National Board of Trade, which corresponds to the Association of Chambers of Commerce of the United Kingdom. ”

“ And so the Committee thinks that the Board of Trade should be empowered at any time to make an inquiry whether any company is carrying on a "key" industry and, if it finds that it is, then the company shall, at the direction of the Board of Trade, require every registered member to make a declaration such as, under the disclosure procedure already described, he would have had to make if he were at the date of the notice about to receive an allotment or become a transferee. ”

“ A Party may require that a majority of the board of directors, or any committee thereof, of an enterprise of the Party that is an investment of an investor of another Party, be of a particular nationality, or resident in the territory of the Party, provided that the requirement does not materially impair the ability of the investor to exercise control over its investment. ”

“ Either the licensing power of the Board of Trade has been used to exclude competitive imports or it has not. If it has been so used, it is obvious that we have no security whatever for the maintenance of the industry in question in a state of efficiency. ”

“ At any rate, in industries already passing under the control of Associations of Consumers, whether by nationalisation or municipalisation, or by the spread of consumers' co-operation, there will be great scope for District Councils and National Boards, as well as for Advisory and Research Committees representative of different specialities, in which managers and foremen, technicians and operatives, will jointly super- sede the capitalist Board of Directors. But the management of each industry is very far from being the whole of the task. ”

“ Is it not strange that in this great commercial country there is no special Government Department to watch over the interests of commerce? We have, indeed, the Board of Trade, and it is interesting to note that when the first Committee for Trade was instituted in 1622, amongst the principles laid down for its guidance was "the importance of encouraging the home manufacture of wool by permitting free trade and lowering the Customs." ”

“ The Department of Commerce, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Reserve Board, the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Bureau of Markets, the Shipping Board, and many other agencies of the Federal Government are engaged in promoting and regulating the commercial business of the country. The Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, a branch of the Department of Commerce, collects information about foreign markets for American goods from American consuls, commercial attachés stationed at the principal foreign capitals, and a corps of traveling special agents. ”

“ This Board afforded resources for enlarging and materially benefiting the trade of the United Kingdom by the publication of its statistical returns, and in numerous other ways, and had the exclusive superintendence of the commerce of the plantations, and indeed of their government until 1786, when a Secretary of State was appointed for the colonies, and a new council for the affairs of trade organised on its present plan. ”

“ The tariff board can clearly be of great assistance to our various customs officers if it should continually keep informed and have in its possession facts and figures relative to the cost of foreign products, as incidental to their true value and as indicative of the price which the foreign manufacturer or owner would have received and was willing to receive, when sold in the ordinary course of trade, in the usual wholesale quantities, in the principal markets of the country, whence the goods may be exported. ”

“ The Board's regulations relating to warehousing of grain set forth the procedure and standards by which warehouses may be made 'regular.' [3]
It is apparent that the federal scheme of regulation of futures trading extends to the whole futures contract-to its satisfaction, as well as to its execution. It is also apparent that the Act provides some control over (1) warehouse receipts which are acceptable in satisfaction of sales and purchases on the contract market, and (2) the qualifications of the warehouses whose receipts will be accepted for such deliveries. ”

“ A corporation is not admitted to membership of the board, but under the rules it may do business on the exchange, if two of its executive officers, substantial stockholders, are members in good standing and give its name as principal in their contracts. ”

“ The members of said board of trade buy and sell sometimes as commission men for outsiders and sometimes for their own account, and it is impossible to tell without inquiry whether a buyer or seller is acting for himself or for someone else. The buying and selling of grain on the floor of said board of trade is, as in all other markets, based upon the constantly and rapidly fluctuating market prices in that and the other principal grain markets. ”

“ The Board of Trade are to consider the classification and schedule of charges, to hear any objections made by any parties whom they consider entitled to be heard, and on coming to an agreement with the company as to what the classification and schedule of charges are to be, are to embody them in a Provisional Order, submit them to Parliament, and bring in a Bill for an Act to confirm the order. ”

“ That such opinions as those expressed by the gentlemen should be the result to which men are led hy years of laborious service in the working department of the Board of Trade, is, to say the least, a most magnificent presumption of the soundness of free-trade principles. ”

“ The General Secretary therefore visited the Board of Trade on the same day, and as a result met Sir Albert Stanley, the President, on August 2nd. Communication remained continuous until August 9th, when the sub-committee twice visited the Board of Trade, and told Sir Albert Stanley of the serious danger of any failure to reach agreement. ”

“ To it the Council instructed traders and others to refer their petitions, and itself referred numbers of similar papers that came into its hands.2 This board took into consideration the various questions touched upon in its instructions, especially those concerning fisheries (Greenland) , manufactures, navigation, commerce, trade (with Guinea, Spain, Canary Islands, etc.) , the poor, the trading companies (especially the East India and Guinea companies) , the merchant companies (chiefly of London) , and freedom of trade. ”

“ When I was president of the New York Board of Trade and Transportation I was impressed with the importance of establishing a closer relationship between the commercial bodies of the country and the Government. Shortly after I became Secretary of Commerce and Labor, therefore, I sought to accomplish that end. I had a study made by Nahum I. Stone, tariff expert of the Bureau of Manufactures, of the relations between the European governments and their commercial bodies, especially in such countries as Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Belgium. ”

“ The union of the Factory-Shop Committees of different concerns must be accomplished on the basis of the different trades, in order to facilitate control over the whole branch of industry, so as to come within the general industrial plan; and so as to create an effective plan of distribution among the different factories of orders, raw materials, fuel, technical and labour power; and also to facilitate cooperation with the Trade Unions, which are organised by trades. ”

“ American trade organizations have been developed mainly on the lines of the British system. Of the associations which come within the scope of this article, the most important are'the chambers of commerce, which in certain cases are called boards of trade. Theoretically there is a distinction between the two, chambers of commerce being entrusted with the protection of general commercial interests, especially in connexion with foreign trade, whilst boards of trade look after local commercial questions. ”

“ As time shows the necessity, and the work of the board commends itself, or requires it, changes doubtless will be needed in the law; notably some provision authorizing the tariff board to present the facts directly to the ways and means committee, whenever any tariff legislation is before congress. ”

“ The committee believes in the formation of organizations for marketing the manufactured products of the country and deems it inexpedient for the Government to enter into any policy aiming at positive control of combinations (trusts) in the United Kingdom. It recommends that combinations be legalized, so as to be enforceable between members. It welcomes the establishment of the British Trade Corporation to co-ordinate and supplement existing financial facilities for trading purposes. ”

“ The government, of course, will have no pecuniary responsibility or interest in the enterprise, and the essays upon the various branches of American production will be general, and not in the interest of any firm or business organization. The enterprise is designed to collect material for the improvement of our export trade, to show what American producers can furnish for the markets of the world, to encourage American competition with foreign markets, and to call the attention of foreign capital to the opportunities of sound and profitable business with this country. ”

“ The experience of a commission house is an asset, which saves many mistakes. Their experts have a wide range of information covering American and European competition, and details such as suitable patterns, correct packing, etc. The commission house may have its capital tied up for six months in transactions, or did prior to the more general use of the trade acceptance, while the manufacturer might receive cash for his goods. For small people this method of sales has many advantages, especially when first launching into export trade. ”

“ The Export-Import Bank of the United States, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, the Trade and Development Agency, the Small Business Administration, and the Departments of the Treasury and Commerce have provided new forms of trade finance that help our firms to compete in the global marketplace. We are addressing the removal of unnecessary and ineffective export controls and streamlining the licensing process, liberalizing controls on a range of high-technology products and increasing the effectiveness of multilateral control regimes. ”