The Board of Trade Boosts Chicago

At its twenty-third annual meeting and election of officers, the Board of Trade chooses J. W. Preston as its president.  The Board reflects on the past year's business and on current economic conditions.  “The general trade of our city, especially in cereals, has been more than usually prosperous,” the directors state, “and, while the receipts of corn, owing to the very light crop of 1869, were below the range of the years in the recent past, still our pre-eminence as a grain market has been maintained, and, perhaps, in no year since the close of the war have our prices ruled more steady, or with less violent fluctuations.  The last harvested crops in the territory tributary to Chicago were of unusually fine quality, and we have to congratulate ourselves that Chicago grain now ranks with the best in all markets.”  Regarding the provision trade, the directors add, “Chicago has, within comparatively few years, advanced to the first position in the country or the world, our packing of hogs, during the past fall and winter, aggregating 918,000 head.”