The Manchester Co-operative Association.

Manawatu Herald, 3 October 1896, Page 3

The Manchester Co-operative Association.

The delegates who were banqueted the other night at Bellamy's quoted some wonderful figures regarding the above Association, which are well worth pondering over. Mr Clay said broadly stated tha grand result was that the only trouble they were goffering from was ont which he wished his hearers were suffering from also. It was too much capital. They had bo much they hardly knew at one time what to do with. it. He was happy to be able to add that they were •lowly forging ahead in spite ol this great handicap. The next big foot was that whereas in 1864 they had be<tun this great co-operative movement with a subscribed capital of lest than £1000— as a matter of fact ; he might tell' them that the exact sum was £999— they had now a huge business and a million of j oipital to spare. They had £100,---000 in the Manchester ship canal, they had made arrangements to manufacture their own tobacco and cigars, they had the grandest boot and shoe manufactory in England, they had a flour mill on the Tyne which turned out 1\ tons of flour per hour ; to give an idea of their requirements, he said that their customers consumed as much as 7000* tons annually ; they possessed 80*1* works which turned out an aggregate of 52,000 ton* a year, and ' if they ooald take the necessary tilloir from the colonies it would be a good thing for them. Mr Jones said oar total trade is £58,000,000 a year on a capital of £21,000,000, on which we make an additional profit of 5 per cent. We do a wholesale trade of £15,000,000, which is divided between our Society and the Scottish Wholesale Society, which is a kindred society to ours. These two societies are formed by all the societies of Great Britain, and they all have a share in the management in proportion to the share of the capital subscribed, which makes us perfectly democratic from begiuniug to end. Then the profits from the wholesale sales are divided among the retail societies ia proportion to their trade; and then,

through the medium of their balancesheets, the individual trader gets his share. That is not the only aspeot. We go in greatly for maunfactoring* and we have 50,000 acreß of land being farmed. We have six or seven millions of articles turned out every year in cooperative manufactories, and in addition to that fully one-half of the cotton trade of Lancashire is in the hands of operatives that are co-operative. There ia twelve millions of money invested in this trade at the present time, and our competition has had this effect, that while, 25 years ago, the average return on capital was 12& per cent, at the present time it is not more than fiva per ceni. Why? Because the working man is satisfied with five per cent, and when the profits get above that they think more mills are required, and thus competition is increased. And whilst the remuneration of capital has gone down, the remuneration of labour has gone up, and the men employed in the cotton trade at the present time ara receiving 25 per cent more money wages — money wage?, mark you— than they were 25 years ago ; they are Working 12} per cent less hours, and their wages will buy 25 per cent more than thny would 25 years ago. So that the working classes have benefitted in every way by the co-operative movement.