AGRICULTURAL COOPERATION IX DENMARK. 
57 
labor classes in Copenhagen ; but the birth of the present cooperative 
consumers' store movement in Denmark dates back to 1866, in the 
small town of Thisted, in northwest Jutland. 38 A clergyman, Rev. 
Hans Christian Sonne (1817-1880), had made a study of the con- 
sumers' stores organized in England on the Rochdale principles. In 
studying the problems of his parish he felt that the depressing 
economic condition was a serious handicap to the spiritual life, 
among the poorer working class. With a new program in mind he 
told them about the cooperative stores in England. This work re- 
sulted in the organization of the Society of Workingmen in Thisted 
Town, which was the first consumers' society in Denmark for coop- 
erative distribution of the necessary supplies for its members. This 
society, which is still in existence, established the fundamental prin- 
ciples of cooperation observed throughout the development of the 
Danish movement. 
The first consumers' stores struggled for existence. Few people 
understood the real motive and meaning of cooperation. Members 
often failed to buy at their own stores. The movement gained but 
little progress the first two decades and that largely with the work- 
ing classes. In the late eighties, when the cooperative creamery had 
won the farmers' confidence, the farmers began to support the con- 
sumers' store and it became a rural development, Only in recent 
years has the movement gained ground in the cities. This develop- 
ment is well illustrated in the official investigations made in 1914 
and 1919, as shown in Table 8, which also shows the year the exist- 
ing societies were founded. 
Table 8. — The cooperative consumers' societies in 191k and 1919. 1 
1914 
Number of societies. 1919. 
Year present existing societies were founded. 
Cities. 
Rural 
districts. 
Total. 
Before 1870 ... . . -. . 
21 
103 
279 
439 
534 
186 
2 
3 
3 
3 
30 
23 
15 
17 
86 
262 
431 
471 
163 
182 
19 
1870-1879 , 
8) 
1880-1889 
265 
1890-1899 
434 
1900-1909 
501 
1910-1914 
186 
1915-1919 - - - 
197 
Total ." 
1,562 
79 
1,612 
2 1, 691 
1 Source: Det Statistiske Departement, Copenhagen, Statistiske Efterretninger No. 6, 1920. 
2 In 1919 the statistical department received reports from only 1,691 cooperative consumers' associations. 
The cooperative wholesale society gives its membership for the same year as 1,792, which did not include 
all. Total number in the country is now over 1,800 societies. 
In 1919 the 1,691 consumers' societies had 316,846 members. Of 
this number, 1,612 societies, with 252,659 members, were located in 
rural districts. As 20 per cent of the membership belongs to the 
79 societies in the cities, the trend of the city societies has been toward 
amalgamation. The rural society may operate one or two stores, 
while the city society usually operates a number of stores. For in- 
stance, in 1916, the 16 consumers' societies in Copenhagen were com- 
3S Hertel, II., Andelsbeviigelsen i Danmark. 1917, p. 51. 
