The Future Trading Act of 1921 (, ) was a United States Act of Congress, approved on August 24, 1921, by the

67th United States Congress The 67th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, consisting of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C. from March 4, ...

intended to institute regulation of grain

futures contract In finance, a futures contract (sometimes called a futures) is a standardized legal contract to buy or sell something at a predetermined price for delivery at a specified time in the future, between parties not yet known to each other. The asset ...

s and, particularly, the exchanges on which they were traded. It was the second federal statute that attempted to regulate futures contracts after the short lived

Anti-Gold Futures Act of 1864 The Anti-Gold Futures Act of 1864 () was the first instance of United States Federal regulation of derivatives. More formally titled "An Act to Prohibit Certain Sales of Gold and Foreign Exchange," the Act was passed by Congress on June 17, 1864. ...

. The act imposed a tax of 20 cents a

bushel A bushel (abbreviation: bsh. or bu.) is an imperial and US customary unit of volume based upon an earlier measure of dry capacity. The old bushel is equal to 2 kennings (obsolete), 4 pecks, or 8 dry gallons, and was used mostly for agri ...

on all contracts for the sale of grain for future delivery other than those on exchanges regulated by the

U.S. Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...

that met standards set out in the statute. Twenty cents a bushel was considered a large sum by the standards of the day. The Act was held to be unconstitutional by the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point ...

in Hill v. Wallace on May 15, 1922. About four years later, on January 11, 1926, the Court announced a related decision in

Trusler v. Crooks Trusler may refer to: * Trusler Sports Complex Trusler Sports Complex is a sports facility located in Emporia, Kansas Emporia is a city in and the county seat of Lyon County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of th ...

. The

Grain Futures Act The Grain Futures Act (ch. 369, , ) is a United States federal law enacted September 21, 1922 involving the regulation of trading in certain commodity futures, and causing the establishment of the Grain Futures Administration, a predecessor orga ...

of 1922 was ruled constitutional in

Board of Trade of City of Chicago v. Olsen ''Board of Trade of City of Chicago v. Olsen'', 262 U.S. 1 (1923), is a United States Supreme Court decision in which the Court upheld the Grain Futures Act as constitutional under the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution.''Board of T ...

External links

* {{US farm acts Futures markets United States federal commodity and futures legislation 1921 in law 1921 in the United States