58 BULLETIN 1266, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
bined into one organization known as the Capital City Cooperative 
Consumers' Society, which had a membership of 7,684 with 43 shops 
when the consolidation was perfected. In 1921, the Copenhagen 
society had 94 shops with 28,846 members and owned and operated 
its own sausage factory and a 45-acre truck-gardening farm. 
The Danish consumers' stores are organized on the Rochdale prin- 
ciples. Membership i^open to all; each member has one vote; 
surplus is divided according to cooperative principles. Necessary 
capital is created by a loan executed by the local society. The mem- 
bers submit to joint liability in the society's financial obligations. 
A small membership fee is paid upon admission, which is credited 
to the society's reserve fund. Goods are distributed at current 
prices and usually on a cash basis. The board of directors, five mem- 
bers, is responsible for the general direction of the business. The 
board chooses the store manager, who arranges for his own assistance. 
Uusally the manager's salary is fixed on a commission basis of the 
volume of business. The general assembly (entire membership) 
meets twice a year. The financial statement is made up every six 
months. 
According to the Danish trade law, a cooperative consumers' so- 
ciety which distributes to members only, is not required to register 
for a trade license. The statistical department, in 1919. found that 
only 40 per cent of the consumers' societies in Denmark had a trade 
license, and were thus privileged to trade with nonmembers. With- 
out the trade license, the society's net earnings are exempt from 
income taxes. 
WHOLESALE SOCIETY. 
One of the great difficulties experienced by the few individual 
consumers' societies in the early days, was the lack of a cooperative 
working program among themselves. The necessity of banding to- 
gether instead of independent operation, was keenly felt by the 
leaders in the pioneer years. As early as 1871. a meeting of the lead- 
ers resulted in the formation of the first central cooperative whole- 
sale society. 39 Its chief function was to provide a medium of joint 
buying for the local societies. After two or three years of fair 
progress, the joint purchasing ceased to gain ground and in 1876 the 
central society was discontinued. The joint purchasing feature was 
not a strictly cooperative wholesale business, as the board of directors 
of the wholesale society arranged for this joint purchasing through 
a merchant who was employed on a fixed commission basis. In 
reality, instead of the local societies creating their own wholesale 
establishment, this central purchasing plan merely added another 
middleman between the local societies and regular wholesale trade. 
That the society did not operate its own warehouse, which restricted 
its activities, is believed to have been a further cause of failure. 
The first permanent successful federation among the Danish con- 
sumers' stores started in 1884 with the formation of the Cooperative 
39 A short historical sketch issued In- the wholesale society, Fallesforeningen for Dan- 
marks Brugsforeninger. Copenhagen, 1913. 
