COOPERATION IN ENGLAND. 743 



limited wants of a community, shopkeepers begin business in cities and 

 towns wbere overtrading already prevails, and the consequence is loss 

 to the investors and demoralization all round. Excessive competition 

 has led to a system of giving credit, which supports dishonest debtors 

 at industry's cost, and keeps multitudes of book-keepers, collectors, and 

 lawyers employed at the charge of productive labor. Furthermore, 

 under existing methods, the losses to society from adulteration con- 

 tinue and increase from year to year. The delusive appearance of 

 cheapness is often bought at a ruinous price. Owen used to declare 

 that an adulteration of pure long-fiber cotton with but one seventh of 

 coarse short staple lessened the wearing value of the fabric one half, 

 and, in the paint-trade, sulphate of baryta is largely mixed with white- 

 lead, yet the sulphate has no covering power whatever as a pigment, 

 and absorbs much valuable oil. The standard of an article, such as 

 coffee, sugar, or paint, once lowered by fraudulent admixture, can 

 scarcely ever be raised again, as the common run of people are poor 

 judges of what they buy, and hesitate to pay the price of a pure and 

 sound article, instead of the current price for really inferior wares 

 which look as well. 



All this struck some needy flannel-weavers of Rochdale nearly forty 

 years ago, and, by weekly subscriptions of twopence each, under the 

 name of the " Equitable Pioneers," they began a small store for the sale 

 of provisions and groceries ; they did not attempt, at first, to sell dry 

 goods or other merchandise subject to the caprices of fashion, or the 

 equal caprices of a variety of customers, whose tastes might not be 

 well judged by the managing committee. These Rochdale weavers 

 plainly saw that all that keeps the big shops in a town from com- 

 pletely eating up the petty ones is the uncertain and fluctuating char- 

 acter of their custom ; so they agreed among themselves to stick to 

 their store for what it could sell them, which they could safely do, as 

 they managed it honestly and well. Once, too, when their flour-mill 

 went badly for a time, they kept on using the ill-made flour until they 

 had all put right, showing their confidence in ultimate success by 

 cheerfully bearing temporary loss. From twopenny beginnings, the 

 Rochdale store has grown until, at the end of 1878, it numbered 

 10,187 members, having transacted during the year a business of 

 $1,450,000, with a profit of $257,000, the expenses being reduced by 

 good management to two per cent. Although the " Equitable Pioneers " 

 were by no means the first society formed in England for cooperative 

 distribution, yet, as one of the earliest among existing societies, its pre- 

 eminent success has made it the model for imitation wherever a new 

 society is being established, or it is necessary to rectify the imperfect 

 working of a society already in business. The " History of the Society 

 of Equitable Pioneers to 1857," written by George Jacob Holyoake, 

 attracted so much interest that a second era of their history to 1878 

 has been given to the world by the same author, who has also written 



