230 • REPORT — 1861. 



stocks. The iisury laws were then in force, and, in consequence of the very high 

 rate of money, maniifa cturers were driven to most terrible sacrifices upon their stocks. 

 At length, prices began to give way ; and the cloth in question fell from 19s. to 

 13s. 6f/., and then to 10s., or nearly 50 per cent, from the highest point. This fall 

 occurred in a period of about nine mouths. In 1848, this same cloth touched the 

 very low point of 4s. 6d., its present vakie being 6s. lOd. In 1816 the price of 80- 

 reed cloth was 29s. — a period of depression rather than excitement ; whilst it fell 

 in 1848 to 4s. Gd. Then, again, a.s another instance of the change in value, and 

 looking at the column of average prices, 



COTTON. 



Highest. Lowest. 



s. d. s. d. 



1 lOi 1 4i 



8| h\ 



10| 6 



6i 4i 



5 3| 



After this, prices began to advance, until, in 1860, they touched 7s. The causes 

 which have operated to produce these changes are a reduction in the price of the 

 raw material, improved machinerv, improved training of the hands emploj'ed, and 

 the enormous increase of demand, which have enabled the manufactm'er to diminish 

 the cost per piece on his fixed expenses by tm-ning oii' a gi-eater number of pieces 

 from the same machinery. Lowness of price, again, has been continually stimu- 

 lating the demand. He had thus shown the history of the fluctuations in the price 

 of one article for a period of about half a century, forty-three yeajs of which had 

 been merely the record of his own pm-chases. 



On the Extent to which Sound Pnnciples of Taxation are embodied in the 

 Legislation of the United Kingdom, By W. Neavmarch. 



H. J. Keb Pobtee presented Engravings of Farm Labourers' Cottages, with a 

 Specification, and made a few remarks, in continuation of a Paper read at Oxford 

 in 1860. 



On Cooperation and its Tendencies. By 'Edmxtkd Potter, F.R.S. 



He pointed out, at starting, the danger of trying to elevate a simple and usefol 

 means of thrift into a presumed new mode for the scientific application of labour 

 and capital. After fully discussing the subject, the conclusions he arrived at wei-e 

 thus stated : — 1. The conclusion I should arrive at, drawn from the opinions I have 

 expressed, would be, that cooperation is sound only when limited to simple and 

 almost unspeculative trading, such as the division of stores, for supplying a provided 

 demand from shareholders, or for institutions and establishments for limited pur- 

 poses, such as would safely admit the democratic principle of management. 2. That 

 it is inefficient for competitive and therefore speculative commercial iradertakings, 

 because it could not, through agents democratically elected and intrusted only with 

 limited responsibility, compete with individual responsibility of gi-eater power. 3. 

 That it would prove weakest during periods of depression, and could not find power 

 of sustentation from a multitude of shareholders of the weaker capitalist class : that 

 it would not supply the power of purchase or expansion during those periods, when 

 the private capitalist invests and expands most profitably. 4. That the more sub- 

 stantial capitalist would be debarred by socialistic rule, which limits the amount 

 of shares to be held, from finding financial and moral support ; therefore the pres- 

 sure of adversity wovdd come with infinitely gi-eater weight on cooperative asso- 

 ciations than on joint-stock or individual ti-ades. 5. That cooperative experiments, 

 though costly to their supporters, may be valuable to society by aifording practical 

 lessons in political economy, and testing the value of, and necessity for, forethought 

 and experience ; that the greater diflusion of education veill not lead to cooperation 

 for traoing purposes, but to greater self-reliance and competition. 



