Commerce is located in Hunt County where Hwys 50, 11, 24, and 224 meet fifteen miles from Greenville and is home of the Texas A&M-Commerce campus.
In 1956 rail passenger service to Commerce was discontinued. Also during this period the many cotton gins of Commerce began to close; the last one shut down in 1978. The population fell from 5,889 in 1950 to 5,789 in 1960. The college became a university in 1965 and began to replace cotton and the railroads as the basis of the economy; the area grew rapidly, as the "baby boom" generation entered college.
The population was 6,825 in 1990.