Page 95 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

The Need of a Bank.
capital. Hence the association proposed in 1869 was to be registered
as a joint- stock company.
On the Good Friday of 1870 a conference on banking was held at
Bury. The Co-operator of that year had acquired a new interest,
that of anti- vaccination, and, since the Bury meeting did not result
in anybody going to gaol, the conference escaped editorial notice.
However, Mr. Ludlow then read the extremely lucid paper on
co-operative banking from which we have already (luoted. He saw
no reason why there should not be a bank possessing central offices
" in the closest possible connection with the Wholesale Society," and
branches wherever it had societies in federation. Such a bank
" might in this way give unity to the movement, which, so far as I
can see, it can hardly attain otherwise." At the Congress of that
year, which was held in Manchester, a paper was read, and the
matter again discussed at length. On this occasion the subject was
handled by the manager of an important banking company, Mr.
Silvanus Wilkins.^ This expert named £50,000 as a necessary
capital, and recommended that the Wholesale Society should be
" the nucleus for the constitution of the contemplated project,"
but the resolution, moved by Wilham Pare and seconded by the
then chairman of the C.W.S., Mr. Crabtree, did no more than confirm
the previous desire for a special bank " provided sufficient capital
can be raised."
The Central Board of the Co-operative Union had the best part
of twelve months before them in which to develop the idea. Yet at
the end of this interval the Board could only regret " little if any
substantial progress." A special circular to friendly and building
societies had produced no result. The Trade Union Congress was
something less than lukewarm. Under these circumstances,
encouraged by William Nuttall, Abraham Greenwood, and J. T. W.
Mitchell, the Congress ended its discussion by recommending action
through the Central Board and the societies around Manchester to
secure the adoption of banking by the English and Scottish Wholesale
Societies. It was not expected that either federation should found a
fully-equipped bank. Each in its own area was to be iirged to make a
beginning, simply, from which developments might follow.
» Incidentally Mr. Wilkins stated that, outside Threadneedle Street, 203 private
and 109 joint-stock banks then existed in England. To£?ether with this statement,
as illustrating modern tendencies, one may quote .Sir R. Infrlis Palgrave, writiu?
In the new Britannica. He found the banking business of England, for lOOG. being
carried on practically by about ten private and sixty joint-stock banks. Since
that year, while no new banks have arisen, certainly half-a-dozen big amalgamations
have been recorded oflacially.
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