FEATURE: HOW THE CASH FLOWS
Trading places
Supply and demand determine prices on the stock exchange, just like at a cattle market. The photographer Tom Huber has taken a look at all manner of places where people trade with each other.
People trade everywhere. Here at the St Peter’s Square flea market in Basel, people still pay cash. | Photos: Tom Huber
The turnover at the Zurich Stock Exchange in 2022 was roughly CHF 1,200 billion.
Quickly booking your next dream holiday while you commute home by tram. Online commerce experienced a boom during the Corona years. In 2022, some CHF 14 billion were spent via the Internet.
Over 400,000 cattle are led to the slaughterhouse in Switzerland every year. Some of them are auctioned off at livestock markets, as here in Zuzwil (canton of St. Gallen). The farmers hope to get the highest possible price for them.
Some people want prostitution as far from sight as possible. Others don’t want sex work to be marginalised. What’s clear is that circumstances have an impact on the price of any service. Like here in the red-light district in the Niederdorf in Zurich.
Shares, commodities, CO2 certificates – the stock exchange sets the value of many things. The prices displayed used to be an important source of information when trading still took place in the ring. Today in Zurich, they merely help to set the atmosphere at the reception.
