With a reputation as a conservative designer of public monuments it was surprising that Hammond was given a commission in 1960 to produce Commerce for the newly opened shopping complex at Chadstone. A limited competition was held, the marquettes were displayed at the National Gallery of Victoria, the judges viewed the entries and gave commissions to both Stanley Hammond and Lenton Parr: Whereas Parr’s organic plant form was innovative – probably the first time welded steel had been used for a piece of public sculpture in Melbourne – Hammond’s work was a cautious use of elements of Cubism.
His symbolic, nineteenth-century depiction of commerce, in which, ‘A seller holds a globe symbolising world trade, to a buyer, with a manufacturer in the background’, was in reality no longer meaningful to the viewing public. Nevertheless, this over 3 meter high, abraded concrete work stood on the lawn at Chadstone for many years, until building extensions brought about its removal. Baillieu Myer saw the work lying discarded on its back and fortunately retrieved it. Re-erected at the Winery, Commerce was the first work by an Australian sculptor acquired for Elgee Park.