Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - V. Social Movements - 1. Labour Questions and Social politics - Cooperative Societies. By G. H. von Koch
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cooperative societies.
695
Cooperative Societies.
A fair idea of the extent to which Cooperative Societies are disseminated
in Sweden can be obtained from statistics compiled in 1912. According to
these data, there were registered from 1897 to 1911 no less than 5 896
societies for economic purposes, out of which, however, 551 were eventually
dissolved. Out of this total 3 800 are stated to fall under the head of
workmen’s cooperative societies, — 1 585 being building societies, and
1187 Cooperative stores, while the remaining 2 096 societies were classed
as agricultural cooperative societies.
In proportion to their population, the läns of Jämtland and Gottland
boast of the largest number cooperative societies, whereas the läns of
Blekinge and Jönköping contain the smallest.
The number of new societies formed attained its maximum in 1907,
namely 729; in 1911,the number was only 323. The number of societies
subsequently dissolved was greatest among workmen’s societies, namely
443, or 11-6 %, whereas among agricultural societies it was only 108,
or 5-2 %.
Workmen’s Cooperative Societies. The most important undertakings,
regarded from the social and economic point of view, within this category of
cooperative societies, are the cooperative stores (konsumtionsförening) which in
1912 were estimated to number about 800 with from 125 to 135 thousand
members.
Besides these cooperative Societies, there were a number of consumers’
joint-stock companies (handelsaktiebolag) formed by, and for the benefit of, workmen,
as to which more anon.
The cooperative stores in Sweden, as in other countries, are associations of
consumers formed with the object of procuring articles of food and other
necessaries of life cheaply, to distribute them equitably, and to carry on various
kinds of production with this object in view.
Cooperative stores were formed as early as the sixties, on English models,
and many of them are still in existence. In the eighties they underwent a
vigorous development, thanks to the enterprises called workmen’s rings
("arbe-tarringar"), but when these undertakings, whose mission it was to promote the
moral and economic welfare of the workmen, began to decline, the whole
movement came to a standstill, until in 1899 the Swedish Cooperative Union
(Kooperativa Förbundet) was formed. Since that time the progress of the cooperative
movement has been steady.
These societies are most widely disseminated in districts with a numerous
industrial population, especially at manufacturing centres with large factories in
the country. In the larger towns the societies are younger, and owing to the
competition of private trading concerns, and the ebb and flow of the population,
they have not achieved great success. The bulk of the members are workmen,
although also farmers, low-grade officials, fishermen, and other professional
groups have joined in considerable numbers. The movement has no political
colour. A few societies have confined their operations to a certain calling (for
example, to railway officials, non-commissioned officers, etc.), besides which
there exists at Stockholm a large and flourishing society consisting exclusively
of female members principally out of the upper and middle classes.
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