Читать книгу Financial Cold War. A View of Sino-US Relations from the Financial Markets онлайн

109 страница из 137

Over in New York, a group of Manhattan dairy merchants launched the Butter and Cheese Exchange of New York in 1872. As the products traded widened to include poultry, dried fruit and canned goods, its name was changed in 1882 to the more grand-sounding New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX). Other regional exchanges trading different commodities sprang up around North America. Eventually, most would demutualise and consolidate into larger exchange groups. By 2008, CME, CBOT and NYMEX had been amalgamated to form the CME Group, which is today the largest derivatives exchange in the world.

Derivatives have an even longer history outside the US. In Japan, the Dōjima Rice Exchange was established in Ōsaka in 1697 and began trading a form of futures contract in 1710. In Great Britain, the LME traces its origins back to 1571. Derivatives exchanges have played a critical role in the development of banking systems, trade and commerce around the world. However, President Nixon's 1971 decision to suspend the dollar's convertibility to gold converged with significant breakthroughs in academia and technology that would catalyse massive growth in the use of derivatives and transform financial markets.