AGRICULTURAL COOPERATION IN DENMARK. 59 
Wholesale Society of Denmark among the societies on the Island of 
Sjalland. From the beginning this organization aimed to benefit by 
mistakes of past attempts; it provided sufficient capital to operate its 
own warehouses and to engage actually in the wholesale business 
itself. Four years later, a similar wholesale society was started on 
the Jutland Peninsula, among the consumers' stores in this Province. 
Finally, in 1896, these two central wholesale societies were combined 
into one organization, the Cooperative Wholesale Society of Den- 
mark (Fallesforeningen for Dan-marks Brugsforeninger, Copen- 
hagen), whose activities have since covered the whole Kingdom. 40 
The energetic initiative of Severin Jorgensen, one of the foremost 
leaders in the development of Danish cooperation, made possible this 
federation which established the Cooperative Wholesale Society of 
Denmark. He was the son of a country school-teacher and a country 
trader himself. After his association with the Idestrup village con- 
sumers' store in 1868, he rose from manager of a local store to presi- 
dent of the Cooperative Wholesale Society, which position he held 
from 1896 to 1913, when he retired. 
Since the amalgamation in 1896, the Cooperative Wholesale So- 
ciety of Denmark has made a remarkable growth, as illustrated in 
Table 9. The membership in the 1,805 consumers' societies embraces 
approximately 42 per cent of Denmark's households. On January 
1, 1923, the wholesale society had 1,380,481 kroner in share capital 
and reserve funds amounting to 14,687,533 kroner. 41 During the 
past 27 years (1896-1922) the members' (consumers' societies) ag- 
gregate purchases from the wholesale society total approximately 
1,512,000,000 kroner and they have been refunded 72,000,000 kroner 
during this period. 
Membership is open to all stores which operate on a cooperative 
basis. Each consumer's society is required to subscribe for one share 
($26.80 at par) for each 20 members. The wholesale society requires 
that the local society be organized on the unlimited liability plan, but 
the local's financial obligations to the wholesale society are limited to 
the extent of its shares and portion of the reserve funds. No buying 
pledge exists between the local store and the wholesale society, yet 
the Danish consumers' stores lead all other European countries with 
respect to patronizing their own wholesale society. About three- 
fourths of their wholesale purchases of goods handled by the society 
are made from the wholesale society, as compared with about one- 
half in England, Scotland, Germany, and Switzerland. 
40 In the county of Ringkobing (Amt), West Jutland, there are two cooperative pur- 
chasing- societies, one distributing household necessities (established 18S5) and the other 
distributing farm supplies (established 1886), which operate independently of the whole- 
sale society and restrict their activities to the large county of Ringkobing. The first 
society comprises 70 local units and did 4. 867,406 kroner ($1,018,748 at exchange) busi- 
ness in 1922, and the latter embraces 45 locals with 4,000,000 kroner ($1,837,200 at 
exchange) business. In operating methods they differ from other Danish cooperatives 
mainly in two respects: (1) They do not aim to engage in importing and manufacture, 
but rather limit their activities! to local distribution of commodities; and (2) goods are 
distributed at actual purchasing costs, plus expenditures involved in distribution, 
41 Andelsbladet No. 25, 1923, p. 513. 
