SCIENCE.-SUPPLEMENT. 



FRIDAY, APRIL 33, 1887. 



CO-OPERATION ON THE CONTINENT OF 

 EUROPE. 



I. — France. 



About a year ago the British minister for for- 

 eign affairs addressed a circular to her Majesty's 

 representatives at Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Rome, 

 Brussels, The Hague, and Stockholm, indicating 

 certain information as to co-operation in those 

 countries which the government desired tooblain. 

 The official replies to the circular contain a great 

 mass of information as to co-operation, much of 

 it difficult to be obtained by any one save a gov- 

 ernoient official. Much of the value of the reports 

 is concealed because of their not having been 

 edited or compiled in any way. Each investi- 

 gator obtained such facts as he could, and stated 

 them in the way most convenient to himself. We 

 shall call attention to such facts in the reports as 

 are of value in connection with the general atten- 

 tion now being given to co-operation in this coun- 

 try. 



The principal questions to which replies were 

 desired were these : — 



1. To what extent have industrial co-operative 

 stores been established among the working-classes, 

 and upon what basis ? 



3. (a) How far have co-operative workshops 

 been established either by associations of 

 workmen or by arrangements between 

 employers and employed V 

 (6) Have they been successful commercially, 

 and how far do they prevent strikes and 

 other disputes ? 

 (c) Upon what ternas are profits usually di- 

 vided in such workshops? 



3. Are there any successful co-operative or 

 people's banks, and what is their mode of oper- 

 ation ? 



4. Are there any instances of co-operative soci- 

 eties which provide social, educational, and recre- 

 ative facilities for the working-people on a self- 

 supporting basis? 



5. Are there any co-operative societies for pro- 

 viding improved dwellings for artisans and labor- 

 ing people? What system do they adopt, and 

 with what success? 



6. Is agriculture carried on by means of co- 

 operation with any success ? 



7. Give details of any co-operative arrange- 

 ments for carrying on shipping, fishing, and in- 

 dustries other than those already mentioned. 



From France comes the ansvper that save at 

 Lyons, the system of co-operation for diminishing 

 the cost of articles of daily use is rarely met with. 

 Owing to the nomad habits of the working popula- 

 tion of Paris, it is particularly neglected in that 

 city. At Mulhausen in 1838 the first instance of a 

 French effort in this direction is found, in the 

 establishment of a co-operative bread-store which 

 managed to realize a profit, while supplying its 

 members with bread at a reduction from the 

 ordinary retail price. In 1849 this association 

 numbered fifteen hundred members. The early 

 attempts at co-operation were made at the in- 

 stance of the employers, and not at that of the 

 workmen. Lyons has been the seat of numerous 

 co-operative enterprises, most of which were 

 started by workmen. The co-operative stores in 

 France are either for bread or meat alone, or for 

 groceries, combined sometimes with clothes, 

 drapery, and objects of household use. The bread- 

 stores have the most success. The Angouleme 

 store sold in 1874 — eight years after its founda- 

 tion — five hundred thousand kilos of bread at 

 about five centimes a kilo below the price asked 

 by private bakers. 



The last general statistics of co-operative supply 

 associations are those of 1869, when there were in 

 France and Algeria together about a hundred and 

 twenty co-operative bakeries. Since then many 

 others have been formed, but though increasing, 

 co-operative supply has taken no great hold in 

 France. 



Co-operative workshops, however, have been 

 in existence since J. Buchez began an agitation in 

 their favor, as long ago as 1830. The main result 

 of Buchez's teaching was a jewellers' association. 

 The system of this co-operative society was to 

 put by a seventh of the profits for the inalienable 

 capital or foundation fund, and to divide the re- 

 mainder amongst the members : one half of this 

 remainder was paid over at once ; the other half, 

 left in the business till the member's death or re- 

 tirement, when it was to be returned. The work- 

 ing-members were paid weekly an amount corre- 

 sponding to the usual wages paid for the work 

 they may have done, and the rules of the associa- 

 tion laid down that there should be six working- 

 days a week, of eleven hours each, and that who- 

 ever stopped work for three days without the per- 



