ry, a printing shop, two
building establishments, a piano factory, a shoe factory, and several
flour mills. These companies were all formed on the same general plan.
The workmen were generally the members of the company. They paid
themselves the prevailing rate of wages, then divided among themselves
either equally or in proportion to their wages the net profits of the
business, when there were any, having first reserved a sufficient
amount to pay interest on capital. As a matter of fact, the capital
and much of the direction was contributed from outside by persons
philanthropically interested in the plans, but the ideal recognized
and desired was that capital should be subscribed, interest received,
and all administration carried on by the workmen-cooeperators
themselves. In this way, in a cooeperative productive establishment,
there would not be two classes, employer and employee. The same
individuals would be acting in both capacities, either themselves or
through their elected managers. All of these early companies failed or
dissolved, sooner or later, but in the meantime others had been
established. By 1862 some 113 productive societies had been formed,
including 28 textile manufacturing companies, 8 boot and shoe
factories, 7 societies of iron workers, 4 of brush makers, and
organizations in various other trades. Among the most conspicuous of
these were three which were much discussed during their period of
prosperity. They were the Liverpool Working Tailors' Association,
which lasted from 1850 to 1860, the Manchester Working Tailors'
Association, which flourished from 1850 to 1872, and the Manchester
Working Hatters' Association, 1851-1873. These companies had at
different times from 6 to 30 members each. After the great strike of
the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, in 1852, a series of iron
workers' cooeperative associations were formed. In the next twenty
years, between 1862 and 1882, some 163 productive societies were
formed, and in 1892 there were 143 societies solely for cooeperative
production in existence, with some 25,000 members. Cooeperative
production has been distinctly less prosperous than cooeperative
distribution. Most purely cooeperative productive societies have had a
short and troubled existence, though their dissolution has in many
cases been the result of contention rather than ordinary failure and
has not always involved pecuniary loss. In addition to the usual
difficulties of all business,