The Social and Industrial History of Scotland; From the Union to the Present Time (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 edition. Excerpt: ...retail trades. Another remarkable feature of the commercial history of the nineteenth century has been the application of the co-operative principle and the rise and extension of co-operative trading societies all over the land. The movement in Scotland dates from the later eighteenth century. The first store on the cooperative principle, as far as our knowledge goes, seems to have been started at Fenwick in Ayrshire in 1769 by the weavers of the village, and dealt chiefly in oatmeal. Another was formed by the weavers of Govan in 1777, and continued to exist till 1909; a third, which still survives, by the same craftsmen at Lennoxtown, in Stirlingshire, in 1812. Others of these early associations ere long collapsed, but the Larkhall Society, which was started in 1821, also survived to the present time. During the next thirty years societies came into existence at Glasgow, Bannockburn, Cadder, Paisley, Muirkirk, Darvel, Leven, Leslie, Kingskettle, Menstrie, Alva, Tillicoultry, Arbroath, Brechin, Kirriemuir, Galashiels, Hawick, Selkirk. These early societies aimed for the most part only at selling goods to their members at cost price, plus the extra charge for expenses of management, though some of them also divided the profits in proportion to the number of shares held by the members. A great impulse was given to the movement by the adoption of the principle of dividing the profits among the members in accord ance with the amount of their purchases. The advocacy of this idea is claimed for Mr Alexander Campbell, of Glasgow, who was an ardent missionary of Robert Owen's scheme of social reform on communal lines. The movement received the sanction of Parliament in 1852, in the Industrial and Provident Societies Act, which was amended and extended by...