“The purpose of the Bremen Cotton Exchange, created under this name as a ‘body corporate’, is to maintain and to promote the interests of all those connected with the cotton trade and the processing and finishing of cotton and cotton products, as well as other textile fibres and textile fibre products.” This is the first paragraph of our by-laws. For more than 140 years, and under this guiding principle, the Bremen Cotton Exchange has represented its members, who come from Germany, Europe and overseas. Our registered office is in the Hanseatic City of Bremen, in which there is a long tradition of cotton trade. The Bremen Cotton Exchange is an international raw material organisation, which together with 16 other cotton exchanges worldwide, ensures contractually correct dealings in the cotton trade. The “constitution” for the cotton trade includes, for example, its own jurisdiction and the instruments for settling differences of opinion between the contractual parties on the quality of the delivered product.