rs.
These letters were the origin of circulars. Messrs Ewart and Rutson
pioneered in 1805 by issuing a weekly account of the sales and imports
of cotton, and three years later three such circulars were on the
market, though Hope's alone was confined to cotton. For the first
associated circular of any importance, the market had to wait until
1832. The issue of this circular by subscribing firms, on the basis of
particulars collected by brokers appointed at a weekly meeting, gave
rise in 1841 to the Cotton Brokers' Association, to which the
development of the market by the systematizing of procedure is largely
due. The rest of the tale may be told in Mr Ellison's own words:--

"Down to 1864 the leading firms continued to issue weekly market
reports, but in that year the association commenced the publication of
an associated circular. This was followed in the same year by the
_Daily Table_ of sales and imports, which in 1874 was succeeded by the
present more complete _Daily Circular_. To these publications were at
various times added the annual report, issued in December, the
American crop report, issued in September, and the daily advices by
cable from America, issued every morning."[5]

Futures.

We shall now enter upon a detailed analysis of "forward" operations. The
term "futures" is used broadly and narrowly: broadly it is a generic
term denoting "futures" in the narrow sense, and also "options" and
"straddles"; narrowly it implies merely contracts for future delivery at
a price fixed in the present. Again we must distinguish between the
"future" contracts for the delivery of a particular kind of cotton,
which may be entered into by spinners and their brokers, and are real
purchases in the sense that the spinners want delivery of the cotton
referred to, and the "futures," which always relate to the same grade
of cotton, and are drawn up according to certain forms and circulate on
the exchange as media for the shifting of risks connected with purchase
and sale. The latter are not "real" purchases in the sense given to that
term above, but fictitious because delivery of the cotton is not
desired. It will no doubt aid the understanding of the functions of the
latter if some explanation is offered of the needs met by the former,
which are sometimes known technically as "deferred deliveries."

The spinner's risks.

When a spinner is required to quote prices of yarn for delivery in the
future h