Wild Wild

출처 : 황금의 샘(원제 : The Prize) 제3권, 다니엘 예르긴 지음, 김태유 옮김, 고려원, pp412~413

교환거래가 일어나면서 뉴욕의 상품거래소는 높은 실적을 올리지 못하였다. 그것은 1872년 설립되었으며, 같은 해에 록펠러는 미국의 석유회사를 인수하여 경쟁상대를 눌러 버리려는 <우리들의 계획>에 착수했다. 이 거래소는 낙농상품 거래장소를 찾고 있던 62명의 뉴욕상인들의 이해를 반영하면서 보다 신중한 야심을 갖게 되었다. 이곳의 원래 이름은 버터 및 치즈 거래소였다. 달걀이 본 메뉴에 추가되어 1880년에는 버터, 치즈 및 달걀 거래소가 되었다. 이름은 2년 후에 다시 바뀌어 뉴욕상품거래소가 되었다. 1920년대에는 달걀뿐만 아니라 달걀 선물거래가 도입되었다. [중략] 1976년과 1979년, 감자계약에 문제가 속출하였다. [중략] 그러나 바로 그때에 가정난방용 석유가 새로운 상품으로 뉴욕상품거래소의 품목으로 추가되었다. 이것은 지방의 난방용 석유 반패업자에게도 유리한 것이었다. 1981년에는 휘발유 선물거래가 시작되었다. 그러나 중요한 혁신은 1983년 3월 30일에 일어났다. 그날 거래소는 원유 선물거래를 도입하였는데, 이것은 OPEC이 런던의 인터콘티넨털 호텔에서 마라톤 회의를 끝낸 지 2주일이 되는 날이었다.[황금의 샘(원제 : The Prize) 제3권, 다니엘 예르긴 지음, 김태유 옮김, 고려원, pp296~297]

As exchanges go, the New York Mercantile Exchange had not exactly enjoyed the most distinguished career. It had been founded in 1872, the same year that John D. Rockefeller launched “our plan” to take over the American oil industry and squeeze out the competition. The exchange had more modest ambitions, reflecting the interests of sixty-two merchants in New York City who were looking for a place to trade dairy products. Its original name was the Butter and Cheese Exchange. Eggs were soon added to the menu, and in 1880, it became the Butter, Cheese, and Egg Exchange. Two years later, it changed its name again, to the New York Mercantile Exchange. By the 1920s, egg futures had been introduced and were being traded, in addition to the eggs themselves. 

Then in 1941, a new commodity entered the portals of the exchange.the Maine potato. Later, futures were added for yellow globe onions, apples (Mcintosh and Golden Delicious), Idaho potatoes, plywood, and platinum. But the Maine potato was the mainstay of the Mercantile Exchange until, unbeknownst to most of the world, the American supply-demand balance for potatoes began to change dramatically. Maine potatoes were losing market share to potatoes produced elsewhere in the country; moreover, the absolute volume of Maine potatoes produced each year was also dropping. As a result, the Maine potato futures contract was running into trouble. In 1976, and again in 1979, scandals hit the potato contract, including the mortifying failure of delivered stocks of potatoes to pass inspection in New York City. The exchange, under pressure, abruptly terminated trading in Maine potatoes and was itself threatened with extinction. 

Just in time, however, the Nymex had introduced a new product, a home heating oil contract, which local heating oil distributors found useful. Then in 1981, it started trading futures in gasoline. But the major innovation came on March 30,1983. On that day, the exchange introduced futures in crude oil, just two weeks after OPEC concluded its marathon meeting at the Intercontinental Hotel in London.

[Yergin, Daniel - The Prize; The Epic Quest For Oil, Money, & Power (Simon & Schuster; 1991), pp 724~725]