Page 53 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

CHAPTER V. —
FmsT Yeaes of Business.

In Cooper Street—Transition from Agency to Wholesale House—The Scottish
Wholesale Society—Difficulties that the Wholesale Society Removed
Years 1864-8.
WHEN the year 1864 opened the Wholesale was more than

a disembodied spirit; yet it had not attained to active
commercial being. The Committee—as recorded in the minutes—were
meeting continually at Rochdale or Manchester, and deciding on
many important things, from the engaging of a buyer and the renting
of an office (at 3, Cooper Street, Manchester) to taking out a hcence
for selling tea and coffee in the name of their president, and resolving
upon the purchase of an office clock. Between these meetings came
a very unostentatious opening for business, on March, 14th 1864.
The Co-operator for the following May contained a brief advertise-
ment of the readiness for trade. Financial arrangements were
"
simple. To obviate the necessity of a large paid-up capital, all
orders must be accompanied with cash approximating to the value
of the order given." Or the money could be paid into a branch of
the bank. Balances on one side were to be immediately remitted,
and would be credited on the other. " Goods will be supphed at
cost price, with the addition of a small commission." One penny
in the £ on all business was the sum decided upon by the
Committee.
The much-discussed and oft-desired wholesale co-operative
society had come into being. Yet, as in so many human achieve-
ments, the first fruits of success were disappointing. Two or three
years of anxiety now lay ahead. Difficulties arose from outside the
new organisation and within. To begin with, it could not be said
that co-operators, beyond the forward few, hailed their creation
enthusiastically. They were no worshippers of what their own
hands had made. WiUiam Marcroft already had been compelled to
resign his seat on the Committee because the society in which he was
No. 1 had not joined the federation. The first report and balance
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