Page 56 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

The Story of the C.W.S.
the advertisement pages of the Co-operator, early in 1869, as
" managers " of the " National Co-operative Wliolesale Agency,"
which supplied goods on commission " to co-operative societies
only." A month or two after the appearance of this advertisement
the Committee of the Wholesale Society found it necessary to issue
circulars warning societies that " a so-called ' National Co-operative
Agency ' opened in Manchester " was " not in any way connected
with the North of England Wholesale Society." But this is five
years ahead of our story.
The need of this new organisation was so great that nothmg
short of real disaster could have ended the North of England
Co-operative Wholesale Society, well founded as it was. Neither did
it remain as described in the appealing words of the Hyde Society's
"
secretary, like a gaunt spectre haunting certain rooms in Cooper
Street and starving upon quarter rations." This establishment of
two men and a boy became inadequate. The second half-yearly
meeting (November, 1864) found a buyer, cashier, clerk, warehouse-
men, and youth engaged in larger premises at 28, Cannon Street,
off Corporation Street, Manchester. At this meeting, to the regret
of some of the pioneers, who beheved it to be the only just method,
the system of selling goods at cost price, plus commission, was
discontinued. It served in a rising market, but with falling prices
the Wholesale soon found itself with goods on hand. Moreover, to
meet the convenience of societies, the federal house was more and
more ol^liged to go beyond the scope of an agency by holding stocks,
which, plainly, could not be charged at what had happened to be the
market price three or four weeks earlier. Hence all sales, in future,
were to be at market rates, with a periodical dividend on purchases.
Evidently the usual trade practice already had taken effect, for at
this November meeting a dividend on purchases was declared " of
12s. 6d. per cent," or, in other words, l|d. in the £. And the next
half year's work resulted in the dividend being doubled.
In the summer of 1865 the Society again removed to larger
premises, at 53, Dantzic Street. Although still hampered for want
of capital, the Committee reported a further increase in business and
profits. An offer of Mr. Henry Pitman's had been accepted, and
he had been appointed " honorary representative." In 1866 the
Society began wider operations by appointing a butter buyer, and
taking an office for him in Tipperary. About the same time, to the
delight of the Quarterly Meeting at which it was announced, Mr.
Samuel Ashworth was at last added to " our staff of buyers." In
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