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preliminary steps in this direction can already be seen. Every
year the marketing of all manner of goods and services is being
investigated in a more thorough and scientific spirit. During
recent years, several new commodity exchanges have been
established in New York and elsewhere. Farmers, too, are
everywhere experimenting to effect improved markets for pro-
duce of various sorts. Some commodities, either because they
are perishable or difficult to standardize, may never develop
markets of the most completely organized type. Yet for many
other commodities, it is not unlikely that organized exchanges
will spring up during the next hundred years. Our present
exchanges, whether in commodities or securities, seem likewise
destined to experience a steady growth in the volume of their
annual turnover, and a more delicate adjustment of their inter-
nal mechanism.
ORGANIZED SECURITY MARKETS
The United States and the World’s Markets.—Secondly,
it also seems inevitable that as time goes on, competition be-
tween exchanges of like character in various parts of the world
will be intensified by the remarkably rapid strides which are
now being taken to perfect speed in communication and trans-
portation. As a result, single exchanges more internationally
dominant than at present will emerge. The location of such
leading world exchanges will depend chiefly upon three dif-
ferent factors—nearness to the main center of supply, nearness
to the main center of demand, and nearness to the money mar-
kets which enable surplus production to be carried into con-
sumption. Americans can face this probable future evolution
with equanimity. When the splendid natural resources of this
country, its high standard of living, the vast consumptive de-
mands of its mighty and constantly mounting population, and
the rapid development of its money centers—particularly, of
course, in New York—are remembered, it seems altogether
likely that many of the internationally dominant exchanges of
future years will be found within the United States.
