THE DEVEI.OPMENT OF THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT 



collection of tables giving information as to the development of most of 

 the co-operative societies in the sixty-nine provinces of the kingdom, as 

 regards each form of co-operation ; c) a collection of tables resuming the 

 situation for each province and district and thus giving a complete pic- 

 ture of the development to which this organization has attained in Italy ; 

 d) as an appendix a list of alj co-operative societies entered in the registers 

 of the existing prefectorates, fererations and consortia. We will here 

 reproduce the principal data contained in this yearbook. 



§ I. The number of co-operative societies in the kingdom 



AND THEIR GEOGRAPHICAI, DISTRIBUTION. 



It should first be stated that the league's researches concerned the 

 following forms of co-operation : a) consumers' societies ; b) producers' and 

 labour societies ; c) societies for the construction of popular dwellings ; 

 d) agricultural societies ; e) insurance societies. In the case of the first 

 four of these the aim was the discovery of the following data : i) date of 

 formation ; 2) number of members ; 3) capital shares, subscribed or paid-up ; 

 4) amount of the various funds, reserve and other ; 5) amount of business ; 



6) profits ; 7) losses. Research of this kind was omitted in the case of the 

 insurance societies owing to the great variety of their working. 



There were, in 1915, 7,429 co-operative societies, as against 5,064 in 

 1910. They were distributed as follows : 



1915 19 10 Difference 



Co-operative consumption 



production and labour 



building 



" agriculture 



insurance. 



Total . . . 7429 5064 + 2365 



The co-operative societies of production and labour occur in the year- 

 book in sixteen sections, according to their objects, namely : i) bakehouses, 

 mills and slaughterhouses ; 2) miners, stoneworkers and cementers ; 3) wood 

 and leather ; 4) ceramics and glass ; 5) fishermen ; 6) copyists and printers ; 



7) mechanics and metallurgists ; 8) chemical industries, 9) electrical in- 

 dustries ; 10) clothing and textile industries ; 11) painters and decorators ; 

 12) journeymen, wheelwrights and navvies; 13) carters, waggoners; 

 14) porters' work ; 15) variotis ; 16) mixed. 



The agricultural societies are divided into three section : i) agricul- 

 ture and culture of special crops ; 2) viticulture and the vintners' industry ; 

 3) dairy farming and cheesemaking. 



The figures given show that the number of co-operative societies in- 

 creased by 2365 between 1910 and 1915. If insurance societies, which di- 



