CO-OPERATION 



457 



nets, or gear of the fishing-boat, is also |.K.. 

 hiliited. Vessels trading in provision*, Ac. mii>t 

 be licensed, and penalties from I'M) to .~><i m 

 \i-ilili- I'm- oHoncrs against tli- convention. Sri- 

 E. J. Mather's Nor'ani of the Dogger ( 1887 ). 



Co-operation. In the social and economic 

 sense of tin- word, co-operation Amorally means the 

 a-^ociation of work-people for tin- management of 

 tht-ir own iiulustriiil interests, in store, workshop, or 

 other undertaking, and the equitable distribution 

 of profits among those who earn them. In Great 

 liritain it has succeeded best in distribution, that 

 i>, in the form of co-operative stores for the 

 supply of the domestic wants of the workmen's 

 families ; in Germany and Italy it has flourished 

 rim-fly under the form of people's* banks, for furnish- 

 ing mutual credit to workmen and also small trades- 

 men. Co-operative production has not yet made 

 corresponding progress. The co-operative movement 

 acquired vitality with the foundation of the Roch- 

 dale Society of Equitable Pioneers in 1844. Before 

 that date there had been instances of co-operative 

 industry among English miners, New England 

 fishermen, and the Greek sailors of the Levant. In 

 Great Britain there exist even yet co-operative 

 societies, which were founded prior to 1844 ; one at 

 Govan, said to have been established in 1777, and 

 another at Hull, started in 1795. The earliest in 

 England, however, was that founded in 1794 at 

 Mongewell, in Oxfordshire, by Shute Barrington, 

 Bishop of Durham. During the Owenite agitation 

 from 1820 to 1845, the movement began to assume 

 national importance, hundreds of societies rising up, 

 which for the most part rapidly disappeared. By 

 general consent it is agreed that the movement 

 took practical and permanent form with the Roch- 

 dale Pioneers (1844). The founders were twenty- 

 eight weavers, nearly all of whom were socialists 

 of the Owen school and Chartists ; and their original 

 capital was 28, painfully collected by subscriptions 

 of twopence, afterwards raised to threepence a 

 week. With this capital they opened a store for 

 supplying themselves with provisions, but at first 

 they had only four articles to sell flour, butter, 

 sugar, and oatmeal. Their success, which was steady 

 and rapid, was chiefly due to their device of limit- 

 ing interest on shares to 5 per cent, and dividing 

 profits among members in proportion to their pur- 

 chases. By 1857 they had a membership of 1850, a 

 capital of 15,000, and annual sales to the amount 

 of 80,000. Their society, its organisation and 

 methods of conducting business, became a model 

 to the working-men in the north and centre of 

 England, as also in Scotland. In this way the 

 movement rapidly spread, and the societies are 

 now over 1400 in number, with nearly a million 

 members. In 1864 the Wholesale Society for the 

 supply of commodities to the various stores was 

 established at Manchester, and a second at Glasgow 

 in 1869; but the two work in harmony, and may 

 be considered as one institution. In 1871 the 

 Co-operative News was started as the organ of 

 the co-operators. Since 1869 national congresses 

 of co-operative societies have been held every 

 year in one or other of the large towns of 

 Great Britain. These may be regarded as the 

 annual parliaments of co-operators. The efforts 

 after organisation culminated in the consolidation 

 of the Co-operative Union with a regular constitu- 

 tion drawn up in 1873. Subject to the congress, 

 the Union is governed by ;i United Board of twelve 

 members, representing the six sections into which 

 the union is divided. The sectional boards have 

 monthly meetings of their own. The Central Co- 

 operative Board, consisting of all the members 

 representing the six sections, comes together for 

 business only at meetings of congress. 



Having thus sketched the general development 



of English co (tin-ration, we shall now more speci- 

 fically indicate the rules and organisation of the 

 societies. Any one may become a member on 

 paying an entrance fee of one shilling, and 

 ineiiilMjrs may pay up their shares at the rate 

 of threepence a week. Shares are usually one 

 pound each, and one or two of these shares, trans- 

 ferable but not withdrawable, constitutes all 

 the capital a member is required to hold. The 

 other share capital that a member may hold w 

 withdrawable. The interest on capital is limited 

 to 5 per cent. Goods are sold at the prices current 

 among respectable shopkeepers in toe n'ighlour- 

 hood, and after paying expenses the nett profits 

 are distributed quarterly among the members in 

 proportion to their purchases. These dividends 

 may be allowed to accumulate in the store, but 

 no member is permitted by law to hold more than 

 200. The general rule is*that payments be made 

 in ready money, a system to which co-operation 

 largely owes its success, but which is not yet uni- 

 versal. At the congress of 1888 complaints were 

 made that the credit system is to some extent per- 

 mitted. Irrespective of the amount of his invest- 

 ments, each member has only one vote. The mem- 

 bers elect a committee for the management of the 

 business. The committees have frequent meet- 

 ings, and control the employees of the store. The 

 members themselves hold quarterly and in many 

 cases monthly meetings. The Wholesale Society 

 is a federation of retail societies, which have to take 

 up shares, and they participate in the management 

 in proportion to their membership. The Wholesale 

 is a large and growing organisation for the supply of 

 goods to the various societies composing it, with 

 purchasing and forwarding depdts not only in 

 England and Ireland, but in New York, Hamburg, 

 Copenhagen, Calais, and Rouen. It owns five 

 steamships, which ply between England and the 

 Continent. It has also extensive productive works, 

 as boot and shoe factories at Leicester, soap-works 

 at Durham, woollen-cloth works at Batley, &c. 

 Besides the productive works thus conducted by 

 the Wholesale Society, there are a number of 

 societies for production alone, societies for working 

 corn -mills, and a number of retail societies which 

 carry on corn-mills and various branches of domes- 

 tic production. The annual production by societies 

 adhering to the Co-operative Union may probably 

 be estimated at about 5,000,000. In addition to 

 the societies already mentioned, there is a co-oper- 

 ative fire and life insurance society, and the Co- 

 operative News Society, started in 1871 for carry- 

 ing on the organ of the co-operators. It should 

 also be mentioned that the societies spend con- 

 siderable sums in education. 



Statistics of English Co-operation, taken from 

 the report of the Co-operative Congress for 1888 : 

 Connected with the Co-operative Union, were (in 

 1887) 1432 societies, with a membership of 945,619, 

 a share capital of 10,012,048, and sales to the 

 amount of 34,189,715, on which profits to the 

 amount of 3,193,178 were made. In 1895 the 

 membership was 1,414,158, the share capital 

 16,164,667, the sales 52,512,126 (with a net 

 profit of 5,397,582). Co-operative manufacturing 

 as well as co-operative distribution was steadily 

 extending the latter type, however, much more 

 slowly than the other. About one-sixth of the popu- 

 lation of Great Britain have their wants in whole 

 or in part supplied through co-operative stores. 



Co-operation in England is thus already one of 

 the established institutions of the country, the 

 importance of which has been recognised alike by 

 statesmen and economists. Though e-.-eiitially a 

 workmen's movement, it should re said that it 

 owes much to the enlightened and philanthropic 

 guidance of men of other classes, to Robert Owen, 



