Trade, Board of

I

Organized market for the exchange of commodity contracts (see commodity exchange).

The Toronto Board of Trade, one of the earliest, was incorporated in 1845. The first grain-futures exchange in the U.S. was organized in Chicago in 1848. The Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) began as a voluntary association of prominent Chicago grain merchants and was chartered by the Illinois legislature in 1859. Initially it sold grain by sample; later it introduced a system of inspection and grading to standardize the market and facilitate trading. By 1858 access to the trading floor was limited to members with seats on the exchange. It became the world's largest commodity exchange in terms of volume and value of business.

II

in full Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations.

Advisory body that supervised American colonial affairs.

Established in 1696 to replace the Lords of Trade (1675–96), it examined colonial legislation to ensure maximum benefit to British trade policies. The board nominated colonial governors, recommended laws affecting the colonies to Parliament, and heard complaints from the colonies about its administrators. It lacked executive or legislative powers, but it became the primary colonial policy-making body of the British government. It was abolished in 1782.

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▪ British government

also called  Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations 

      English governmental advisory body established by William III in May 1696 to replace the Lords of Trade (1675) in the supervision of colonial affairs. The board was to examine colonial legislation and to recommend disallowance of those laws that conflicted with imperial trade policies, to nominate governors and other high officials for royal colonies and to write the instructions for appointed governors, to recommend laws affecting the colonies to Parliament and the Privy Council, and to hear and to make reports on complaints from the colonies regarding imperial administration. These responsibilities were more extensive than those that had been delegated to the Lords of Trade. Memberships in the Board of Trade consisted of two groups: eight permanent salaried commissioners who conducted the regular duties of the board and eight ex-officio unpaid members who were nominally selected from the Privy Council.

      The board itself lacked executive or legislative powers but it became in effect the primary policy-making and administrative agency of the British government in its mercantilist endeavours to make the American colonies profitable to the mother country. The Board of Trade continued to manage colonial affairs until 1779 and was abolished three years later.

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