It was established in order to supply a daily market where coffee could be bought and sold and to fix quotations therefor, in distinction from the former method of alternate glut and scarcity, with wide variations in price--in short, to create stability and certainty in trading in an important article of commerce. This it has accomplished; and it has made New York the most important primary coffee market in the United States. But there has been recently introduced a non-commercial factor known as “valorization,” a governmental scheme of Brazil, by which the public treasury has assumed to purchase and hold a certain percentage of the coffee grown there, in order to prevent a decline of the price. This has created abnormal conditions in the coffee trade. All transactions must be reported by the seller to the superintendent of the Exchange with an exact statement of the time and terms of delivery. The record shows that the average annual sales in the past five years have been in excess of 16,000,000 bags of 250 pounds each. Contracts may be transferred or offset by voluntary clearings by groups of members. There is no general clearing system. There is a commendable rule providing that, in case of a “corner,” the officials may fix a settlement price for contracts to avoid disastrous failures. THE OTHER EXCHANGES Of the exchanges which we have classed as minor, those dealing with Fruit and Hay, appear to be in nowise concerned with speculation. No sales whatever are conducted on them, all transactions being consummated either in the places of business of the members or at public auction to the highest bidder. No quotations are made or published. In the case of the other two commodity exchanges, the Mercantile and the Metal, new problems arise. Although quotations of the products appertaining to these exchanges are printed daily in the public press, they are not a record of actual transactions amongst members, either for immediate or future delivery. It is true that on the Mercantile Exchange there are some desultory operations in so-called future contracts in butter and eggs, the character of which is, however, revealed by the fact that neither delivery by the seller nor acceptance by the buyer is obligatory; the contract may be voided by either party by payment of a maximum penalty of 5 per cent. There are nominal “calls,” but trading is confessedly rare. The published quotations are made by a committee, the membership of which is changed periodically. That committee is actually a close corporation of the buyers of butter and eggs, and the prices really represent their views as to the rates at which the trade generally should be ready to buy from the farmers and country dealers.