Speculation and the Chicago Board of Trade

A 1920 study of grain futures trading by an agricultural economist, written in the middle of a long American political fight over whether commodity speculation was a legitimate economic function or a parasitic one. Boyle describes the mechanics of the Chicago pit — hedging, the role of the speculator in absorbing price risk from farmers and millers, the effect of futures markets on the cash price of grain — and argues for the defence of the institution against the bills then circulating to restrict or abolish futures trading.

Why it’s on the list: A primary source on the oldest argument in American finance: whether speculators are absorbing risk for producers or merely extracting from them. Written while the question was still politically live.

Where I saw it: @tylercosgrove’s October 15, 2025 list of 25 books he offered to send to Jared Kushner.

Connections

• Chicago — the Board of Trade and the grain pit are the book’s subject.
• Regulation — the anti-futures legislation Boyle was writing against.
• Risk — risk transfer from producer to speculator is the core of his defence.
• Financial History — the section of the anti-library this sits in.