MS 247 - Toledo Board of Trade
MLA Citation
Tags
Title | MS 247 - Toledo Board of Trade |
---|---|
Subject | Business & Commerce |
Introduction | The records of the Toledo Board of Trade (TBOT) span the years 1849 to 1999. The history of the commercial organization is reflected in the thirty linear feet of minutes, correspondence, legal documents, reports, printed material, and photographs. Through the cooperation of Ginger Reid, executive manager of the TBOT, and Paul Yon, director of the Center for Archival Collections (CAC), the records of the Toledo Board of Trade were donated to the archives in two installments. The initial material, eleven linear feet, was received in July 1982. The bulk of the collection arrived in December 1999, shortly after the TBOT ceased its operations. No restrictions exist on the use of this material and duplication is permitted for the purposes of preservation and scholarly research. The records are available for patron use in their original form. In February 1983 Karen Snow, graduate assistant in history, completed the first processing of the collection. In May 2000 the inventory and arrangement of files was brought up to date by Roger Chapman, graduate assistant in American culture studies. |
Agency History | The Toledo Board of Trade, a non-profit corporation composed of grain dealers, millers, feed manufacturers and processors, was formed in 1849. Reorganized under the name of the Toledo Produce Exchange in 1876 (and changed back to the Toledo Board of Trade in 1930), the organization was to become one of Toledo's most prominent commercial institutions. Aside from providing an organized market place for buyers and sellers of grain to meet and conduct their trading, the Board's purposes were many. It promoted and encouraged honorable and equitable principles of trade and gathered and disseminated commercial information. More importantly, the Board was responsible for inspecting and grading the hundreds of millions of bushels of grain that yearly flowed into Toledo railroad yards and freight elevators. The Board even maintained a transportation department to negotiate freight rates with railroads. That all changed in the mid-1970s. A series of grain-export scandals, mostly in New York and the Gulf Coast, emerged in 1975. The corruption inspired the United States Grain Standards Act of 1976, which forced the TBOT to surrender grain weighing and inspection to the newly formed Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS). This occurred in 1977, although the Toledo operation was never implicated in the national scandal. The new regulations caused the demise of one of Toledo's oldest commercial organizations. The remaining members of the former non-profit Board of Trade voted to dissolve the corporation. Most of the Board-employed inspectors and weighing supervisors went to work for FGIS. Six major members of the former Board of Trade decided to charter a new for-profit corporation, the Toledo Board of Trade, Inc., which began operations in 1979. The Grain Standards Act was mostly concerned with the regulation of export-bound grain and it was discovered that the local board could still provide grain weighing (although not inspection) services at local inland elevators and to the river elevators during those months in which there is no ship loading. The new Board of Trade also published weekly figures of available stockpiles at all member elevators and reported all members' receipts and shipments on a daily basis to the Chicago Board of Trade. The Board also compiled and published daily price quotations of Toledo cash grain. But two decades later, on 31 December 1999, the Board permanently shut down its operations. |
Scope and Content | The records of the Toledo Board of Trade, dating from 1849 to 1999, document the history of one of Toledo's oldest and most prominent commercial institutions. Predominantly consisting of minutes, correspondence, reports, printed material and photographs, the TBOT collection provides many avenues for research. The strength of this collection lies in its application to the study of economics and agribusiness, especially as they relate to the Toledo area. The source best suited toward such a study is the minutes of the Board of Trade. These minutes are complete, except for one gap from 1853 to 1859, from the Board's inception in 1849 to its demise in 1999. As such, one can follow the Board's membership, policies, functions, and financial transactions as they developed over time. Significant developments include the grain weighing and inspection duties, rate and tariff regulation and trading floor operation. In 1930, the Toledo Produce Exchange was reorganized under the title of the Toledo Board of Trade. As a result of this event, the written documentation contained in the collection is substantially greater for the years after 1930. In addition to the minutes, one can utilize the correspondence, various reports and printed material for studying the Board of Trade and its relation to other Toledo commercial institutions. Of particular importance are the reports that significantly expand upon the information contained in the minutes. Financial information can be obtained from the Accountant's Reports that contain annual statements of cash assets and deficits and in the Annual Business Reports that contain grain receipts and shipments from Toledo facilities. Other reports include the Annual Boat Reports, listing weekly vessels loading and destinations, and the Official Market Reports, giving daily Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) quotations. The collection also includes the Monthly Letter and Bulletin of the CBOT, spanning the years 1985 to 1999. The collection's legal papers include details of court cases before the Interstate Commerce Commission and information about the Toledo Port and Port Authority. Finally, the written records of the TBOT are complemented by a significant photograph collection. The photographs, which date from 1876 to 1968, include numerous individual portraits of the organization's presidents and chief inspectors. Also included in the photographs are group portraits of Board members. A small addition of material related to Virgil A. McNamee, who was Chief Grain Inspector for the Board of Trade, was added in 2010, including clippings, reports, printed material and some USDA Grain Inspectors' Newsletters from the 1930s. |
Series Description |
MINUTES: TOLEDO BOARD OF TRADE MINUTES: TRANSPORTATION COMMITTEE RULES AND BYLAWS ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION AND RELATED PAPERS MEMBERSHIP LISTS MEMBERSHIP BOOK CORRESPONDENCE: TOLEDO BOARD OF TRADE CORRESPONDENCE: ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN RAILROADS GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE SUBJECT FILE: GRAIN INSPECTION SUBJECT FILE: WEIGHING DEPARTMENT SUBJECT FILE: GRANGE SUBJECT FILE: RAILROAD AND ROUTING SUBJECT FILE: AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GRAIN WORKERS UNION, LOCAL 58 SUBJECT FILE: TBOT PERSONNEL SUBJECT FILE: TBOT PENSION SUBJECT FILE: GROUP HEALTH INSURANCE AND WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION SUBJECT FILE: MISCELLANEOUS OFFICE SUBJECT FILE: TBOT SOCIAL EVENTS TBOT ACCOUNTANT'S REPORT TBOT ANNUAL BOAT REPORT TOLEDO GRAIN SHIPMENTS AND STOCKS TBOT DAILY CASH GRAIN PRICES TBOT ANNUAL BUSINESS REPORT TBOT OFFICIAL MARKET REPORT TBOT BROCHURES TBOT ADVERTISING LOGOS TBOT RAIL TRANSPORTATION REPORT SPEECHES ON GRAIN WEIGHING HISTORY OF SCALES COURT PROCEEDINGS TERMINATION PAPERS TOLEDO PRODUCE EXCHANGE LEGAL FILE LEGISLATIVE GRAIN ROUTING SCHUMAKER, LOOP & KENDRICK TESTIMONY TBOT TAXES BALANCE SHEETS ESCROW ACCOUNT BUDGET NEWS CLIPPINGS PAMPHLETS GRAIN FILE TOLEDO PORT MAPS OF GRAIN SITES BLUEPRINTS PRINTED MATERIALS PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINTS |
Inventory |
Box 2: Proceedings Folders
Box 3: Proceedings Folders
Box 4: Procedings Folders
Box 5: Proceedings Folders
Box 6: Proceedings Folders
Box 7: Proceedings Folders
Box 8: Proceedings Folders
Box 9: Proceedings Folders
Box 10: Proceedings Folders
Box 11: Proceedings Folders
Folders
Box 13: Correspondence Folders
Folders (Subject File: Grain Inspection)
Box 15: Subject Files Folders (Subject File: Grain Inspection (continued))
Box 16: Subject Files Folders (Subject File: Weighing Department)
Box 17: Subject Files Folders (Subject File: Grange (#1))
Box 18: Subject Files Folders (Subject File: Grange (#2))
Box 19: Subject Files Folders (Subject File: Railroad and Routing)
Box 20: Subject Files Folders (Subject File: TBOT Personnel)
Box 21: Subject Files Folders (Subject File: Group Health Insurance and Workmen's Compensation)
Box 22: Subject Files Folders (Subject File: Miscellaneous Office)
Folders
Box 24: Reports Folders
Box 25: Reports Folders
Box 26: Reports Folders
Box 27: Reports Folders
Box 28: Reports Folders
Box 29: Reports Folders
Box 30: Reports, Literary Productions Folders
Folders
Folders
Box 33: Financial Documents Folders
Box 34: Financial Documents, Scrapbook Materials, Maps, Printed Materials Folders
Box 35: Printed Materials Folders
Box 36: Printed Materials Folders
Box 37: Printed Materials, Photographs Folders
Box 38: (McNamee Addition) Folder
Box 39: (McNamee Addition) Folder
OVERSIZE FLAT Contains materials pertaining to incorporation. Oversized Photographs
|