The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1872-06-08
Cooperative Stores In England.

How the Pioneers Of RochdAle have
worked up cooperation in the course OF
twenty years, may be cleaned FROM The fol-
lowing fgurs %#M
In the year lsAA tho npmbss Ct znsmbsrs
was %, holding pruperty to the amount of
S28 In the year 1854, the number of
members had risen to 900, owning property
to the amount of 81, LIZ los. I'd. their
sales amounted to f3S, 1854, with profit of
81 ,763, lis. 25d. Whilst in 1864, with 4,
$50 members, holding property to the
amount Of ESQ, $40, their sales augmented
to fl74. 200 IS. Al. with profit Of f22, l63
IS Cd
With this great cooperative store, how
ever, the Pioneers did not rest contented.
Though not under the same name, the same
individuals established, in 1861, the Roch-
dale Corn Mill Society, which in 1864 was
running fifteen stones, with capital Of
over 949. 900 and n business " El41, 74l.
During 1865. the cooperative steam corn
mill, with a capital of over f5S, 600 had a
business of 81 A. 533, with profit Of SO, :
5ll
Yet more In 1880 the Pioneers estab-
lished cotton factory which employs three
hundred hands and two hundred and fifty
looms The capital (of over f68, O00l dur
ing 1863 and 1864. gave no dividend, in con
sequence Of the Cotton-P Panic, but the
looms were never wholly stopped, working
at les i.alf the time. At the present time
their capital is about f91 900, and they re-
ceived cash for goods during the year 1865
to the amount If fl33, S95. Since the year
1868 a building association also has arisen
employing a capital If over e52, 500 which
furnishes its members with good houses at
a reasonable cost. A life insurance and
burial society has capital of over El5, 200.
30 that the entire working capital, which
mas. arisen from the original f2S now
amounts to more than E2l5, 900.
1t could not fail to happen that the re-
suits Of the Rochdale Pioneers soon became
known in the neighborhood, and thence
spread through constantly wider circles.
Everywhere men emulated their example,
till network of similar societies spread,
one after another, all over England. The
! greater number of them are cooperative
stores, some having in addition flour mills
and factories. All Of them are prosperous
AMI steadily increasing
Prof Huber, who has travelled through
out England and given much study to these
organizations. estimates their present num-
Der at one Thousand. The number Of mem
bers of cooperative stores amounts to over
/ POO, 900, with a capital of over Il 800, 900,
and an annual business Of about "A, 800,
600
From an official report which was laid
| before the British Parliament, it appears
that in 1863 there were already AGO such
associations at work in England whose
membership amounted to nearly l09. 900.
Their sales were over e9, 600, 900, their own
property was $500 while the profits.
shared among the members for the year
1868, amounted to more than goo, 900.
In 1865 the eight societies alone Of Roch-
dale, Bacup, Halifax, Oldham, Bury, and
Manchester numbered 24,4l4 members,
with a property of over goo. 600 and a
business of over f1OO,OO0.
Of the whole 400 societies only about an
eighth part were commenced before the
year 1860, and scarcely 81 before the year
1886, while the great majority of them had
to struggle with the inevitable difficulty of
starting Considering these facts, it may
be deemed certain that in a short time their
business and property will have increased
many fold.
In 1861 the members of these associations
had already established and brought into
partial operation three large factories.
Their capital exceeded Il, 900, 900, Of which
$500, 900 was invested by shareholders ;
the remainder was raised from bonds and
mortgages.
The cooperative store association of the
north of England have created central as
ISOLATION for the purchase and sale Of mer
chandise at wholesale prices This is man
aged by the Rochdale Pioneers, and in
1864 disposed Of goods to the amount Of
El42, OOo to l65 cooperative stores (f25,-
900 more than in 1864.
This method of association has at last
found its way even into the English colo
MES, where it is applied in the cultivation
of the very cotton which is woven in the
cooperative factories at home.