During the mid-nineteenth century, merchants in Cincinnati (Ohio) gained access to the latest telegraphic news through the Merchants' Exchange, which became a vital link in a communications network that served as the nervous system of the nation's economy. The Cincinnati Merchants' Exchange was founded in 1843 by the Young Men's Mercantile Library Association in order to have a meeting place for the members of the library, and to create a merchants' exchange similar to those operating in other urban areas. On August 20, 1847, the first telegraph line to Cincinnati terminated in the College Building where the Merchants' Exchange was housed. After the telegraph reduced the risk in farm commodities trade which relied on a system of commission merchants, western cities became the points at which final sales were made and Cincinnati was a major point for such transactions. The telephone and the ticker produced a second revolution in business practices which decentralized business communications and in the process undermined the exchange. The exchange was a transitional market institution that for a time helped meet the commercial-information needs of the city, but was not destined to become a specialized exchange with futures trading like the Chicago Board of Trade. And its life, as well as its death, was largely dictated by communications technology. (Seventy-one notes are attached.) (RAE)