SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC HISTORY 



stores, and take the profits which the retail store-keeper was making at their 

 expense : 



It was not going too far to infer that one good, well-stocked shop would, properly served) 

 supply the wants of a thousand families and supersede twenty smaller shops and save to the 

 customers all the cost of the twenty shopmen and twenty shop rents and rates in addition 

 to the economy in price and advantage in quality in buying wholesale in a degree small 

 shops could not compass.*** 



The idea gradually gained ground and was eagerly canvassed among the 

 people of the industrial districts, where the factories afforded ample occasion 

 for gatherings of workmen. In 1829 Lancashire newspapers were discussing 

 it and lectures were delivered on the subject at Lancaster, Liverpool, Bolton, 

 and Blackburn. The first co-operative congress was held at Manchester in 

 1830, the fourth in Liverpool in 1832. 



In Lancashire the socialist side of the movement occupied itself with 

 the education of the masses. ' Halls of Science ' were instituted at Man- 

 chester, Liverpool, Rochdale, and other places.*" The idea was being borne 

 in upon the better-class artisans that the great disadvantage they were under 

 with regard to their so-called social superiors was the want of education. 

 The fruit of this idea was the founding of the Mechanics' Institute up 

 and down the country in the large towns. That in Manchester was founded 

 in 1825, and one in Liverpool ten years later. In both these great cities 

 learned societies already existed under the more or less exclusive titles of 

 Literary and Philosophical Societies,**' but these were in no respect popular 

 or of any benefit to the poor labouring man who wished to ' improve ' him- 

 self in his spare evening hours. 



By the forties, however, many of the wild socialistic enterprises, 

 having proved costly failures, were abandoned, and enthusiasm for the 

 idea of co-operation in particular was conspicuously flagging, until 

 'John Stuart Mill inspired it with hope by saying there was no reason 

 in political economy why any self-helping movement of the people should 

 ever die.' 



The movement was in fact not dead : the ' vital spark ' was there, and 

 was first fanned into a flame by the efforts of the indefatigable workers of 

 Rochdale, who according to Mr. Holyoake, the historian of the co-operative 

 movement, discovered the successful method of keeping it alive by ' feeding 

 it on profits.' *" The history of the Rochdale store as given by Mr. Holy- 

 oake is extremely pathetic. The necessary capital was raised by weekly sub- 

 scriptions of 2c/. ' The merit of the scheme,' says its gifted historian, lay in 

 the fact ' that it tended to create Capital among men who had none, and 

 allured purchasers to the store by the prospect of a quarterly dividend of 

 profits upon their outlay.' The beginning of the year 1844 was very slow 

 and laboriously uphill work. ' Ten shillings ' were the first year's profits, the 

 result of twelve months' active and daily attention to business. It took several 



*** Holyoake, op. cit. i, 60. 



'" Ibid. 297. That at Liverpool, Mr. Holyoake tells us, cost ^£5,000, and that at Manchester has been 

 since purchased for the City Free Library. In Rochdale the building was styled ' The Science Hall.' 

 Ibid ii, 45. 



"' Baines, Kist of Lanes, (ed. Harland), i, 393 (Manchester); and ii, 369 (Liverpool). 



"' Hist, of Co-operation, ii, 9. 



