Vignettes
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The Exchange District
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Lombard
Grain Exchange Building III
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To capitalize on the potential trade of prairie wheat
to market, several local businessmen organized the Winnipeg
Grain and Produce Exchange in 1887. Executives such as
Daniel McMillan, Nicholas Bawlf, George Galt and Rodmond
Roblin initially oversaw the operation of an open cash
market for wheat.
The Canadian Pacific Railway was in place to move wheat to
market, and production was growing as more homesteaders adapted
to the rich prairie soil. The Exchange soon developed into
one of the world's principal grain markets, the only organization
of its type in Canada and second only to Chicago in importance.
Its scope expanded in 1904 into futures trading in wheat,
oats and flaxseed, then in the 1910s to futures markets for
barley and rye.
