What's in a price? The American raw cotton market in Liverpool and the Anglo-American War

This article argues that an embryonic futures market was present in Liverpool during the Anglo-American War. The analysis of a previously unseen data-set of printed Prices Currents has facilitated not only a price series of raw cotton prices, but an in-depth analysis of the 'construction'...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Business history 2019-08, Vol.61 (6), p.942-970
Main Author:	Haggerty, Sheryllynne
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	19th century Anglo-American War Britain brokers Commodity prices Cotton Cotton prices dealers embryonic Futures market Liverpool manufacturers merchants nineteenth century Prices Providence raw cotton speculators United States War of 1812
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	This article argues that an embryonic futures market was present in Liverpool during the Anglo-American War. The analysis of a previously unseen data-set of printed Prices Currents has facilitated not only a price series of raw cotton prices, but an in-depth analysis of the 'construction' of those raw cotton prices. By positing a definition of an embryonic futures market and then analysing each of the features of a such a market in turn, this study demonstrates the existence of an embryonic futures market in early nineteenth-century Liverpool.
ISSN:	0007-6791 1743-7938