72 
The Middleman in Agriculture. 
is unchecked. There are artificial barriers in most cases against 
too great an inundation of new blood in the ranks of any 
business, while the existence of “ rings ” to maintain prices 
above their normal level is a distinctly disturbing factor in the 
situation. There is, however, one highly effective weapon, and 
that is co-operation. 
The principle underlying co-operation is the union of pro- 
ducers or consumers for the purpose of saving the middle profits. 
Combinations of consumers have been immensely successful, as 
the case of the great “ stores ” in London testifies. The system 
lias, however, found its greatest success among the working 
classes. Started in a very modest way by the “ Rochdale 
Pioneers,” the co-operative movement has now reached enormous 
proportions. There are at present 1,744 industrial co-operative 
societies throughout the United Kingdom, including over 
1,100,000 members. Taking each member to represent a 
family, we have five and a half millions of the population whose 
daily food is mainly purchased on the co-operative principle. 
In England and Wales alone the number of societies which 
made returns in 1889 was 1,268, with a membership of 897,841, 
and a share and loan capital of 12,522,269?. The sales for the 
year amounted to 33,016,841?., and the profits to 2,981,543?. 
To a certain extent, this vast organisation, by means of what is 
termed the wholesale society, aims at being a combination of 
producers as well as a combination of consumers, but the prin- 
ciple is only partially carried out, and, broadly speaking, it 
must be classed in the latter category. 
It is perhaps worth noting, in passing, that a suggestion has 
lately been made — which has not, perhaps, obtained so much 
consideration as it deserves — that English farmers should make 
an attempt to secure for themselves the supply of this vast 
organised demand, so to speak. Such an idea, however, requires 
as a condition precedent an organisation of producers large 
enough and solid enough to be in a position to make terms. At 
present, the co-operative societies buy, of course, in the cheapest 
and most convenient markets, which in many instances are foreign, 
even in the case of articles which are largely produced in this 
country. Whether they would be disposed to give any pre- 
ference to the home supply — presuming that there were farmers’ 
organisations in a position to deal with them on a large scale — 
is an obvious element of doubt in the matter. The idea is 
evidently very much in the air, and possibly Utopian altogether, 
but it certainly possesses fascination. One would say that 
combinations, of producers on the one hand and of consumers on 
the other, contracting on either side for the sale and purchase 
