The federation deals primarily with its members on the indus trial group system, but it approximates to the organization of the chambers of commerce in maintaining district offices and secre taries in most of the principal cities of Great Britain and in providing its members with a method of expressing their views on the geographical basis through district committees.
In the United States, where trade associations are greatly developed, the central commercial organization, the United States chamber of commerce, corresponds with both the Association of British Chambers of Commerce and the Federation of British Industries, since it is a federation not only of local chambers of commerce, but also of other bodies included among which are many national trade associations.
Chambers of Trade.—The bodies known as Chambers of Trade form a territorial organization representative of the dis tributive side of trade and so supplementary to the Chambers of Commerce. They are linked together by the National Chamber of Trade inaugurated in 1897 and incorporated in 1925 which has a membership of upwards of 35o local chambers of trade and traders' associations. The Incorporated Association of Retail Distributors which commenced its operations in 1920 and has attained a membership of 200 large retail stores forms a com plement in this respect to the National Chamber of Trade. These bodies are mentioned here in view of their part in the national organization of trade as a whole, but their main activities lie outside its proper sphere and are treated under RETAILING.
Produce Markets.—Again parallel with the development of topographical associations of merchants and of associations for particular "trades" has been that of the organization of the process of buying and selling of specially important individual commod ities or of produce markets. For the more important basic food stuffs and raw materials the markets became concentrated so as to serve increasingly large areas, and, for the more regular and efficient conduct of their primary purpose, system and regulation arose, the market becoming a "produce exchange." Following the same distinction in character that is found between British and Continental chambers of commerce, the British "Exchange," originating from voluntary association, is self-governing and de rives its effective powers from custom and not from statute; on the other hand the French "bourses de commerce" work under strict Government control; so, also in Germany and generally on the Continent. Some of these institutions, e.g., the "Baltic" (Baltic Mercantile and Shipping Exchange Ltd.) dealing chiefly
in shipping (charter parties) and grain, and the Corn and Coal Exchanges of London, were founded about the middle of the 18th century, but the greater number are of much later origin. The Liverpool Corn Trade Association dates from 1853, provides a futures market for wheat and maize and controls the whole of the wheat trade of the port ; a similar body is the London Corn Trade Association dating from 1878 working closely with the "Baltic." The London Produce Clearing House Ltd., established in 1888 deals with forward contracts in coffee, sugar and many other commodities. The largest corn exchange is that of Chicago dating from 1848 and operating under a State Charter of 1859. The New York Produce Exchange was formed about the same time and provides for the markets in a number of commodities; cotton and coffee, however, had their separate exchanges in New York in 1870 and 1887 respectively, and the great southern cotton exchange is at New Orleans. The Liverpool Cotton Association Ltd., assumed its present form in 1882. These bodies are generally owned and managed by their members. They develop the organ ization of the markets by standardization of grades and by per fecting the general methods of business and the rules under which the sales are conducted.
With Chaucers' Merchant, whose interest in safe navigation was limited to the narrow seas between Holland (Middelburg) and the East coast of England (Orewell), went to Canterbury a shipman who knew all the havens from the Baltic (Gothland) to Spain. Two centuries later the merchants were joining to gether to engage in large enterprises of trade in distant waters with their own ships. In 1555, for example, the Muscovy Mer chants Company was granted a royal charter to trade with the newly discovered northern ports of Russia and other new mar kets. Another royal charter was granted to the Eastland Company in 1579 to continue their trade with the Baltic. The Levant Company received charters from Elizabeth (1581-1593) and survived until the 19th century, as did the London East India Company (i600). The rival merchant venturers on the Con tinent followed with the Dutch United East India Company (1602) and the French East India Company (1664). True to the divergent British and French conceptions of policy these trading companies were, with England, merely developments of individual enterprise self-governing and self-supporting; with France, like the chambers of commerce they were rather organs of the State controlled bureaucratically.