The first successful cooperative in the world

"The reason why a person is a person must be expressed by interacting with others." Ubuntu: Ubuntu-African traditional culture

"What is the best way to improve the situation of the poor?"

ICA's suggestion is to set up a cooperative and rely on it to take your destiny into your own hands.

ICA is an international cooperation alliance organization.

Let's read a story about a cooperative.

People turn to find a way to help themselves get rid of poverty and despair with their own strength. Cooperatives are such a form of economic and social organization that they can choose.

Rochdale Fair Pioneer Society is the continuation and development of this exploration!

# Part I: Birth

Since the birth of the first successful cooperative in the world, it has spanned two centuries from19th century to 2 1 century.

? 1844 65438+February 2 1, in rochdale, Lancashire, northwest England, a humble shop was opened in an alley called Toad Lane. This humble shop has a unique system, which is why it has become a "holy land" that attracts many yearning people at home and abroad to worship. Its former site has been transformed into rochdale Pioneer Museum since April 193 1. The museum shows the initial simple layout of this small shop, showing its precious files, memorabilia, related pictures and objects. Visitors can see in the museum or online that two large wooden barrels set up a long wooden board as its sales counter. It has become a "holy land" not because of any religious or other mysterious reasons, but because this small shop is jointly run by some poor workers as consumers to meet their daily needs. It created a new system in practice, which was proved to be effective for a large number of people in society to improve their economic and social conditions by worldwide practice from 65438 to 068. This is the cooperative system.

This small shop is rochdale Fair Pioneer Association. Rochdale, where it is located, is a small town, located 12 miles north of Manchester. At that time, there were only about 25,000 residents, and Manchester was the center of the textile industry in England.

This small shop, called Fair Pioneer Society, was opened in a rented old warehouse on the longest and coldest weekend night of winter from 1844 to Sunday. At that time, it not only did not have the festive scene when ordinary businesses opened, on the contrary, it faced the skeptical eyes of many onlookers, and there was no lack of ridicule from competing private businessmen. Due to lack of funds, at first it only sold flour, oatmeal, butter and sugar, which were the four most necessary foods for British people's daily life at that time, plus candles for lighting, and later it gradually increased its business varieties. 1846, 1847, selling meat and low-grade clothing successively. 1852 increased the shoemaking and tailoring business, and at the same time increased the items usually sold in British grocery stores at that time year by year.

When the store opened, the customers were 28 founders and their families. These founders are members of the Vanguard Association. They are both the owner of this small shop and its customers; It is not only the owner of the store, but also the user of the store service. The unity of users and owners is the basic feature of cooperatives from the beginning.

From the list of founding members of the Fair Pioneer Society kept by Co-operative Union Ltd, we can see that among these 28 people, there are 65,438+06 textile workers, including 8 flannel weavers, 2 wool sorters, and 65,438+0 roughers, warping workers, pattern designers, power loom maintenance workers, wool waste handlers and silk makers. In addition, there are 3 carpenters, 2 shoemakers, and 65,438+0 engineers, tailors, woodcut printers, clogs makers, coal haulers and vendors. Another person later immigrated to New Zealand, 1844 The occupation is unknown.

The reason why shops open on weekend nights is that they have to work during the day, six days a week. Among these people, the weaver is the most bitter. They have to bend over and work hard on the loom for 65,438+04-65,438+06 hours every day. When the factory owner defaults on their wages, they have to starve as usual to avoid unemployment.

When they opened this small shop, they didn't want to create any earth-shattering achievements at first, but just wanted to ease their predicament and meet their real life needs. As workers (hired workers) and consumers, they are exploited by both factory owners and private businessmen. At that time, Rochedale was a small town inhabited by workers, and the environment was filthy. Half of the streets had no sewers and drains. The location of the shop is really a veritable "toad lane". At that time, the infant mortality rate in this town was extremely high, and the average life expectancy of residents was only 2 1 year, which was 6 years shorter than the average life expectancy of residents in the same period. Adulteration of food sold in the market is prevalent, and sprouted potatoes are also sold in the market. Being underweight is a common occurrence. This small shop is consumers' own retail cooperative, and its establishment is their attempt to change this dilemma. The reason why the store was named Fair Pioneer Society was because it insisted on selling pure food without adulteration to customers, that is, members, at a fair price (at that time, the British government had no food safety regulations, and Pioneer Society took the lead in automatically ensuring the supply of safe food); The English word "Pioneer" of "pioneer" means "pioneer". They call themselves "pioneers", that is, they are determined to cultivate a living space that they can stand on in the wilderness that no one has successfully explored in the market economy, and rely on the strength of their own groups to strive to hold the right to negotiate market transactions in their own hands.

# Part 2, Development and Growth

Pioneer believes that it is time to be honest, open and respect customers.

They should be able to share the profits contributed by customers.

They should have democratic rights and the right to speak in enterprises.

Every customer of the store has become a member organization of the store, and they have real shares in this enterprise.

At first, this shop was only open every Monday and Saturday night. In the future, with the expansion of business and membership, business hours will gradually increase. But in less than three months, the company has grown and worked five days a week. By 185 1, it can be opened all day every day.

The establishment of Fair Pioneer Society has inspired people who share the same fate as its founding members. One year later, the number of members increased from 28 to 74 at the end of 1845. But at that time, most residents outside the club still held a wait-and-see attitude, and 1846 members only increased by five or six. There are reasons for their wait-and-see attitude. First of all, there were many kinds of cooperatives in Britain at least half a century before the Fair Pioneer Society, but they all failed in the end. In Rochdale, there is also a cooperative between 1833- 1835 on the same street where Pioneer is located, and it has not been spared from bankruptcy. Therefore, most residents still have doubts about cooperatives. Secondly, in the early days of Pioneer Society, due to poor funds, there was almost no commodity inventory in the store. As a local private shopkeeper ridiculed, all its stocks can be pushed away by unicycle. You have to buy and sell, and the strength is really insignificant compared with the surrounding private houses. Moreover, because the purchase batch is small and the choice of price and quality is limited, the advantages of temporary cooperation are not obvious. These factors undoubtedly limit the competitiveness of retail cooperatives to private stores and weaken their attraction to residents outside the society. In this way, from 1846- 1848, the store had a very difficult three-year operation period.

Nevertheless, the members personally felt the benefits brought by the cooperative and firmly supported their own cooperative. Some members who live far away from this small shop also insist on shopping in the store. Seeing is believing for a long time, the advantages of retail cooperatives have finally gradually emerged. Especially during the skyrocketing market price of 1847, the store still insisted on selling at low prices, which further enhanced the confidence of members and the attractiveness of cooperatives to poor residents. The number of members of Pioneer Society increased to about 1 10 at the end of 1847 and reached140 at the end of 1848; 1849 and 1850 accelerated their development, with about 390 registered members and 600 registered members at the end of the year; It will grow steadily in the next four years, with about 630 people at the end of185/kloc-0, 680 people at the end of 1852, 720 people at the end of 1853 and 900 people at the end of 1854. At the end of 1855, it quickly increased to about 1400, at the end of 1856, at the end of 1600, at the end of 1857, and at the end of 1850. From the end of 1844 to the end of 1857, the number of members increased by 65 times. After more than 20 years of development, to 1880, the number of members has exceeded 10000. With the increase in the number of members and the expansion of geographical distribution, Pioneer has successively added retail outlets.

Pioneer also seized some opportunities in time. For example, five years after its establishment, a local savings bank closed down, and Pioneer Company attracted rochdale residents to deposit their money in the cooperative, which gave them financing opportunities and promoted the development of the cooperative retail industry.

After opening the cooperative store, Fair Pioneer also made it one of its goals to help its members solve their housing difficulties. 186 1 year, a local land and construction company in rochdale was established, registered as a private limited company, with the goal of building a "slightly high-end house" for workers, hoping that most of its shares would be subscribed by prospective tenants. However, due to the high cost of land and construction, although the 25 houses it built are very small, ordinary workers still think it is too expensive. 1867, rochdale's Fair Pioneer Society began to build the cooperative's real estate, and built 84 houses in five blocks, two of which were named Pioneer Street and Fair Street respectively. 1869, took over the rochdale real estate company. By the end of 19, Fair Pioneer had owned 300 houses and set up cooperative housing cooperatives, which became the main lessors of the houses needed by the members who lacked houses. Tenants are not only owners and users of building associations, but also managers of building associations.

The success of rochdale Fair Pioneer Society has produced a wide range of demonstration effects in the society and has become a model for all British consumer cooperatives to follow. Only after seven years, by 185 1 year, there have been about 130 retail cooperatives in China. According to 186 1 statistics, there are 48 184 members in British consumer cooperatives. By 1880, it increased to more than 500,000 people (as mentioned above, the number of members of Pioneer Society exceeded 10,000 in the same year), and the number of members increased by about10 times in 20 years. From 19 to 1900 at the turn of the 20th century, in Britain, there were 1439 registered cooperatives with1700,000 members, which was more than double that of 1880.

From retail cooperatives to cooperative wholesale cooperatives, and then to cooperative groups, although the organizational form of cooperatives has been developing with the changes of members' needs and external environment, it has never changed. "Zong" is the purpose of the cooperative to serve its members, and it is the fundamental principle that the cooperative is owned by the members, democratically controlled by the members and seeks benefits for the members.

Rochdale Fair Pioneer Association is not the first cooperative in Britain or the world, but it is recognized as the first successful cooperative in the world.

At present, the principle of supporting its operation mode is still regarded as the basis for all cooperatives to carry out their business activities. These principles have been revised and updated, but in essence they are still those implemented in 1844.

It created a new system in practice, which was proved to be effective for a large number of people in society to improve their economic and social conditions by worldwide practice in 168. This is the cooperative system.

The establishment and operation rules of Pioneer Association are formulated by its founding members themselves. The formation of these rules has a process, not a one-time completion. The main part is contained in its constitution "The Law and Purpose of rochdale Fair Pioneer Association", while other parts are reflected in the resolutions, minutes and daily practices of the general meeting. The establishment and operation of Pioneer Society must raise its own capital, so the articles of association stipulate the contribution responsibility of members. They imagined that the initial goal of raising capital was 65,438+0,000, and each share raised 65,438+0. It is expected that the number of members will increase to 250, and each member will pay an average of 4 pounds of capital, that is, 4 shares per person. However, in view of the actual economic situation and payment ability of members, the subscribed share capital is paid in installments. At that time, Pioneer Society stipulated that each member must personally commit to subscribe for 4 shares 1( 1 = 20 shillings, 1 shilling = 12 pence) and pay a down payment 1 shilling on the spot (3 pence per share, 4 shares totaling 65438). That is, 65,438+0 shilling) as the down payment for confirming the membership, that is, the down payment for the share capital, and then pay the share capital of not less than 3p per week, and agree to keep his due capital interest and profit dividend in his share account to offset his due capital until the paid-in amount reaches the capital equivalent to 4 shares (4 pounds). Members who fail to fulfill their commitments on time will be fined according to regulations. The articles of association stipulate: "Any member who is in arrears with this installment payment for 3 months will be fined 6 pence unless he is sick or unemployed. Any member who is in arrears with this installment payment for six months will be removed from the list, his shares will be sold, and the rest will be returned to the deleted member after paying all necessary fees. " Generally, each member is required to hold 4 shares, and more shares are allowed, but not more than 50 shares. The articles of association have special provisions on the shareholding of the senior management of this institution, requiring each person to hold 50 shares. As for the poor family members who are really unable to pay their shares, with the permission of the cooperative, they can only keep 1 share, and the rest of his shares can be sold in the cooperative. When any member dies, the successor, executor or manager of the deceased member can inherit the shares of the deceased member and obtain membership as long as he agrees with the purpose and rules of Pioneer Society. If the successor, executor or manager disagrees with its objectives and rules, the manager of the cooperative will let the shares be sold in the cooperative.

Pioneer Club pays interest on the paid-in share capital of its members at a moderate interest rate, and the operating profit is distributed in proportion to the number of goods purchased by members in the club, once a quarter. This is what people later called the principle of paying limited interest and profit on cooperative equity and returning it through sponsorship. In practice, the members of Pioneer Club found that the deposit of 1 shilling (that is, the down payment of capital stock) and the future weekly payment of capital stock of not less than 3p brought them practical benefits. They regard this as their reliable savings in the cooperative, so they are willing to deposit their money in the cooperative and insist on shopping in the cooperative store.

With regard to the installment payment method of paying not less than 3 pence per week stipulated by Pioneer Society, it is necessary to supplement its origin. Previously, in order to win higher wages and better working conditions, rochdale flannel weavers had to send representatives to negotiate with the factory owners. These workers' representatives not only delay their work and reduce their income for negotiation, but also are often regarded as eyesores by factory owners, who will find opportunities to dismiss them in the future. In order to support their negotiators financially, weavers donate 2 pence a week to set up a fund for this purpose, which has become the practice before the establishment of Pioneer Society. When the Pioneer Society was founded, they followed this social practice and decided that each member would pay 2 pence a week. Later, due to the financial needs of the store, it was changed to 3 pence. However, in the past, the 2 pence paid to support the workers' negotiators was a pure donation, but now it is paid as equity in Pioneer Society, which not only guarantees the principal and interest, but also returns the profit of shopping according to the membership, so members feel that the cooperative is more beneficial to them.

Pioneer Society respects the right of individual members to choose.

First, adhere to the freedom of voluntary membership and withdrawal;

Second, no one has the right to dissolve the cooperative without the consent of 5/6 actual members;

The third is to respect the wishes of individual members to choose whether to shop in cooperatives.

At the beginning, when the competitiveness of cooperatives was weak and the trading situation was not very good, it was proposed that every member should be forced to shop in cooperatives, and members who did not shop in cooperatives should be removed from the list. However, Charles Howorth opposed this motion, arguing that members' freedom of action should be effectively guaranteed and should not be undermined on the pretext of cooperative interests. The cooperative accepted his suggestion and insisted on improving management, giving more benefits to its members and enhancing the cohesion of the cooperative. Later, it turned out that they were right to do so.

In view of the lesson that many previous cooperative experiments often failed because members owed debts to cooperatives, Pioneer insisted that members buy goods in cooperative stores and conduct cash transactions.

Pioneer Society has attached importance to the construction of corporate governance structure since its establishment. First of all, hold regular general meetings of all members, including quarterly meetings and annual meetings. Quarters will be held at 8: 00 pm on the first Monday of the first month of each quarter (65438+1October, April, July, 65438+1October). The manager of the agency will make a quarterly financial report at the meeting. When the general meeting of members makes a decision on any issue, each member has only one vote; However, if the votes for and against any motion are equal, the directors of the club or the chairman of the meeting may exercise their casting vote. Resolutions usually take effect by a simple majority vote; However, the decision to dissolve the cooperative must be adopted by six fifths of the actual members.

Second, the general assembly elects the Council, which consists of five directors. The administrative department of this institution has a director, a treasurer and a secretary, who are also elected by the general assembly. At the same time, the General Assembly appointed two auditors, each with a term of six months, who abdicated alternately. The articles of association stipulate clear responsibilities and strict discipline for the board of directors and managers. The meeting between the board of directors and the manager is held at 8 pm every Thursday to discuss the business affairs of the agency; Roll call at 8: 15. Those who are late and absent will be recorded by the secretary. According to the regulations, they will be fined, 3p for being late and 6p for being absent. The director of the club is the chairman of all the meetings of the club. If he can't attend some meetings, the manager or member present will choose a chairman from the attendees. In the absence of directors, the chairman or directors of the meeting shall sign the minutes of each meeting. The secretary shall attend all meetings of the agency, record the names of managers present and absent, keep records of each meeting, and keep all accounts, documents, books and periodicals. The chief financial officer is responsible for the funds managed by the cooperative manager, and for the investment authorized by the cooperative manager and its application.

Third, the financial system has been strictly regulated. No one may buy anything in the name of the cooperative except the personnel designated by the cooperative according to its articles of association; The person designated to perform this duty must use cash when buying and selling goods on behalf of the agency, and under no circumstances can any goods be bought or sold in a non-cash way under any pretext. Anyone who violates this regulation will be fined 10 shilling and dismissed from the corresponding post. The purpose of this regulation is to clarify the economic responsibility of managers and prevent debts from dragging down cooperatives due to improper behavior of individual personnel. In addition, in the daily retail business, the salesperson and cashier have a clear division of labor, and the salesperson only sells goods and cannot collect money; The cashier collects the payment and issues a receipt to the buyer. The money received is handed over to the accounting secretary at the weekly meeting.

Pioneer Society not only provides shopping services for its members, but also attaches importance to the education of its members and their children. It is located in a three-story building and was originally used as a warehouse. At first, it only rented the ground floor as a small shop business place, and later rented the top floor to open schools and free libraries for its members and their children. However, Britain has implemented the national compulsory education system for school-age children for a long time. 1849, Pioneer rented a reading room and a booth selling newspapers and periodicals on the second floor, and the profits from selling newspapers and periodicals were also used for the reading room.

Some principles of Pioneer Society were not determined at the beginning of its establishment, but only became clear when it encountered problems in the future. Its attitude towards religion is an example. Its founding members have always adopted a tolerant attitude towards religion. Although members of liberal and monotheistic groups have fundamentally different attitudes towards religion, they can cooperate in society because they share the same ideas as cooperatives. Not only religion, but also the chartists and Irvine members with different political views. However, with the rapid increase of members, by 1850, many Protestants have entered. They brought the exclusivity of Protestantism and did not respect the freedom of other members. They suggested closing the reading room on Sunday and banning any religious discussion. Members who adhere to the principle of freedom oppose this restriction. They think that respecting individual freedom is more important than any personal income. This difference threatens the unity among members and even the survival of cooperatives. 1850 On February 4th, the general meeting of all members adopted the following resolution: "Every member has full freedom to express his opinions on all the topics put forward in an appropriate time and manner before the meeting; At the same time, all themes should be legal when properly proposed. " This resolution expresses the meaning that cooperation must be tolerant. That is to say, under the premise of adhering to the concept of cooperation, tolerance of different viewpoints and aspirations is an absolutely necessary condition to achieve cooperation. Without tolerance, there can be no real cooperation. Pioneer Society respects the individual religious beliefs of its members, and at the same time demands that any religious member shall not bring the exclusiveness of any religion into the membership relationship and interfere with the freedom of other members.

In real life, while the shops of Pioneer Club supply goods, the reading room above the shops has also become a place where members often meet in their leisure time, and they can freely exchange views on issues of concern to everyone (including politics and religion, social consequences of machines crowding out workers in the industrial revolution, etc.). Although they may have different views, they still get along on an equal footing and insist on cooperation.

All in all,

Rochdale Fair Pioneer Association has formulated and implemented the following rules for itself:

Voluntary and open membership; Democratic control (one person, one vote);

Members contribute capital, and the interest rate of equity is fixed and limited;

Cash transactions, no credit;

Fair trading, accurate enough to ensure the quality of goods and services;

The rest will be distributed according to the proportion of the purchase amount of the members (patronage and dividends);

Provide education to members and their families;

Cooperation between cooperatives;

Political and religious neutrality.

These rules distinguish pioneer community from other stores and are the key to its success.

Rochdale Fair Pioneer Society was founded entirely for the actual needs of its members. The rules they made are practical rules, which are based on the real environment, seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, ensure their own needs to be met, and make the cooperative sustainable development. These rules undoubtedly had local characteristics at that time; However, there is no doubt that the success of Pioneer Society proves that they contain the basic elements that can embody the nature of cooperatives and ensure the successful promotion of cooperatives. Later, after the test and development of the international cooperative movement, it summed up the basic experience of rochdale Fair Pioneer Society, summed up the basic principles that were successful for cooperatives and had universal significance, and named them "rochdale Principles", which became the universal principles guiding the healthy development of cooperatives in various countries. It is a cooperative principle advocated by Rochedale Fair Pioneer Company and developed from the international cooperative movement.

1966, the League of International Cooperation summarized the item 1 1 of the rochdale Principles into six items and renamed it "Cooperation Principles". Namely:

? ? (1) Members of a cooperative should be voluntary. Anyone who is willing to use cooperative services and assume the responsibility of membership can join the cooperative without any artificial restrictions and any social, political, racial and religious discrimination.

(2) A cooperative is a democratic organization, and its affairs are managed by personnel elected or designated by its members in a manner agreed by them, and they are responsible to their members. Members of cooperatives enjoy equal voting rights and the right to participate in cooperative decision-making, with one person and one vote. The management of cooperatives should adopt appropriate methods on the basis of democracy.

(3) There should be strict restrictions on the interest rate of stock dividends.

(4) The surplus or surplus of a cooperative belongs to its members. The distribution method should avoid taking others' losses as this person's gains. It can be realized by members in the following ways: (1) for cooperative business development; (two) for holding public welfare undertakings; (3) Distribution to members according to the proportion of the transaction amount between members and cooperatives.

(5) All cooperatives should strive to publicize the principles and methods of economic and democratic cooperation to their members, managers, workers and the public.

(6) All cooperative organizations should actively cooperate with other local, national or international cooperatives to promote the best interests of their members and communities.

Of the above six principles, the first three can best reflect the essential characteristics of cooperatives.

I am closely connected with others, and we are all the same. I think this is "the integration of all things".

The whole earth ecosystem is an Ubuntu. Do you think you can survive without this system?

In order to be more detailed than it, drawing is difficult and easy. 2/kloc-in the spring of 2008, GECA, the entrepreneurial team of Shengfeng Cooperative, set sail. We will faithfully follow the classic principles and ride the wings of TOKEN. Help every member of * * * realize 100% dream of ancestral home.

Call 007: I am here at the best time. The new me, join the new us-007. Thank you for being with us. Writing is life, and writing is to express who I am. An out-and-out freedom fighter and a staunch defender of peace. This is me, you know? Writing is as simple as breathing! Once a week for seven years. See you at the South Pole, comrades!