26 CO-OPEEATION IN DANISH AGKICULTURE 



Copenhagen and from 1868 to 1876 published a paper, Arhej- 

 deren (The Working Man), to encourage co-operation between 

 those in the lower strata of society. Leading men, including 

 the Rev. Mr. Sonne, called two meetings in Copenhagen, in 

 1871 and 1874, in order to discuss with representatives of the 

 existing societies and influential men of all classes (the Prime 

 Minister, Count Hoist ein, was present at the first meeting) 

 what could be done to further the movement. There were in 

 1874, 92 societies. A central society was formed in 1871,. 

 chiefly through the exertions of V. Faber, for the purpose 

 of joint purchasing, but it proved a failure ; instead of forming 

 a co-operative wholesale business, as in England, a merchant 

 was employed to purchase goods for the co-operative stores at 

 a fixed commission. The result was a retrograde movement, 

 and 37 societies were dissolved. The turn of the tide came when 

 Severin Jorgensen 'placed his energy, his initiative, and his 

 idealistic enthusiasm at the service of the Co-operative Distri- 

 butive Societies. Ho was born in 1842, and is still one of the 

 leading men in Danish co-operation. He began as a small 

 dealer in a village ; in 1868 he helped to establish a co-operative 

 store in a neighbouring village, having given up his own business 

 to manage another co-operative store in Jutland. He did this 

 so successfully that other stores joined his for the purpose of 

 buying wholesale. This wholesale business in Jutland gradu- 

 ally increased, and in 1884 a similar one was established in 

 Sealand. In 1896 these two Associations of Co-operative 

 Societies were amalgamated to form a central society, called 

 " Fsellesforeningen for Danmarks Brugsforeninger," or the 

 Co-operative Wholesale Society of Denmark, with headquarters 

 in Copenhagen. 



The number of co-operative stores increased but slowly until 

 in 1885 the political situation indirectly helped to forward the 

 movement. There was a considerable political agitation over 

 a question affecting the Danish constitution, and the peasants, 

 being mostly Liberals, saw in the ** co-op. stores " a means of 

 making themselves independent of the merchants, who were 

 generally in the opposite political camp. Another impetus was 

 the formation of the central society in 1896. From 1 885 to 1909 

 as many as fifty new co-operative stores were formed every year. 



