60 
BULLETIN 1266, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Table 9. — The growth of the Cooperative TYholcsale Society of Denmark in 
membership and business, 1896-1922. 1 
Year beginning January 1. 
Xuir.ber Member- 
of con- ship in 
sumers' the so- 
societies. cieties. 
Sales, 
1,000 
dol- 
lars. 2 
Value 
of own 
manu- 
facture, 
1,000 
dollars. 
Net 
earnings, 
1,000 
dollars. 
1896 
1900 
1905 
1910 
1914 
1915 
1916 
1917 
1918 
1919 
1920 
1921 
1922 
310 
601 
1,029 
1,259 
1,407 
1,488 
1,537 
1,574 
1,604 
1,729 
1,792 
1,800 
1,805 
30, 690 
79, 933 
143, 031 
177, 519 
219, 492 
232, 128 
239, 772 
245, 544 
250, 224 
323, 323 
335, 104 
336,400 
337, 537 
1,119 
3,051 
116 
6,547 
494 
11,069 
1,284 
15. 102 
3. 227 
18,193 
4, 039 
23,477 
4,908 
3 24, 091 
4,836 
22,213 
2,879 
30, 172 
6,355 
31, 784 
6,546 
31, 045 
6,348 
25,830 
6,224 
29 
9.t 
314 
629 
1,008 
1 . 274 
1,967 
3,869 
1, 462 
1,936 
7S3 
540 
1,307 
1 Sources: Supplied by the main offices. Fallesforeningenfor Danmarks Brugsforeninger. Copenhagen 
and also the society's annual reports. 
2 Converted at par of exchange prior to 1914, subsequently at prevailing average rates as quoted by Federal 
Reserve Board. 
3 The slight decrease in volume of business in 1917 and 1918 was caused by the war restrictions, which 
made it difficult for Denmark to secure her necessary supply of food. 
The wholesale society engages in both the purchase and production 
of goods for the cooperative stores. The discrimination and boy- 
cotts which private interests have tried to effect against the Coopera- 
tive Wholesale Society, in different commodities from time to time, 
prompted the society to go closer to the sources of raw material and 
}:>rocess the raw material in its own plants. The society now goes 
directly into the foreign markets and purchases raw material. Its 
activities in production have resulted in building several manufac- 
turing establishments, which are operated and managed by the 
society. The different lines of production and date of establishment 
are: Coffee roasting (1897); chocolate manufacture (1900); con- 
fectionery (1901) ; tobacco and cigar manufacture (1902). Some of 
the other industries are represented by rope works, soap factory, 
chemical works, margarine factory, men's and women's ready-made 
clothing and shoe factories, bicycle factory, and tannery. 
The Cooperative Wholesale Society of Denmark is a member of 
the Scandinavian Cooperative Wholesale Society (Nordisk Andels- 
forbund), which is a joint buying organization of the three co- 
operative wholesale societies in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It 
deals largely in foreign trade, especially the importation of colonial 
produce. 
COOPERATIVE PURCHASE OF AGRICULTURAL SUPPLIES. 
Local attempts at joint buying of agricultural supplies occurred 
among the Danish farmers in the seventies, but it was the Cooperative 
Wholesale Society of Denmark which took the first steps toward the 
present development of cooperative buying and distribution of feeds, 
seeds, fertilizers, cement, and the like, when in the late eighties it 
established a special department for the purchase of seeds and fer- 
tilizers. Later, the buying of fertilizers was taken over by a sep- 
arate association organized for this special purpose and the seed 
