Full text of "The cooperative movement in Jugoslavia, Rumania and north Italy during and after the world war"

See other formats

=ircarnegie Endowment for International Peace

0
0
0

7
1
6

4
4
6

UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY

II III

DIVISION OF ECONOMICS AND HISTORY

RELIMINARY ECONOMIC STUDIES OF THE WAR

THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN JUGO-
SLAVIA, RUMANIA AND NORTH ITALY
DURING AND AFTER THE WORLD WAR

3531-6

Digitized by the Internet Arciiive

in 2007 witii funding from

IVIicrosoft Corporation

littp://www.arcliive.org/details/cooperativemovemOOcoffiala

Publications of the

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Division of Economics and History

John Bates Clark, Director

PRELIMINARY ECONOMIC STUDIES OF THE WAR

No. 21

THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT

IN JUGOSLAVIA. RUMANIA

AND NORTH ITALY

DIARMID COFFEY

Librarian, The Cooperative Reference Library, Dublin

THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT

IN JUGOSLAVIA, RUMANIA

AND NORTH ITALY

During and After the World War

DIARMID COFFEY

Librarian, The Cooperative Reference Library, Dublin

NEW YORK

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Amebican Branch: 35 West 32nd Street
LONDON, TORONTO, MELBOURNE AND BOMBAY

1922

COrVRIGHT 193a
BY THE
CARltEOIB ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACI

CnaOM BBOS.. pkimtbm, washimoton

2D-^^'> ^ UrvIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

/^ Z' SANTA BARBARA COLLBGB LIBRARY

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

The following studies of the cooperative movement in Serbia
and Rumania during and after the War are the outcome of an in-
vestigation undertaken by me at the instigation in the first
instance and with the financial support of the Horace Plunkett
Foundation Trust and the English Labour Research Depart-
ment. The preparation of a report for the Carnegie Endow-
ment for International Peace enabled me to extend the time and
scope of my investigation. I had originally intended to make a
full inquiry into Italian cooperation, but I found that were I to
attempt this I should have to devote six months or a year to
Italy alone. The extraordinary number of cooperative organi-
zations in Italy and the wide range of their activities are such that
no one could attempt to speak with authority who had not spent
a very long time in the country and who did not speak Italian
almost as his native language. I therefore attempted only a
cursory view of Italian cooperation and have appended a few
brief and inadequate notes of what I saw in Italy.

My investigations in Jugoslavia and Rumania were far more
fruitful, and I think I may claim to give a fairly comprehensive
view of cooperative conditions in these countries. I have not
seen any accounts of them which give as general a description as I
have attempted, and therefore I hope that the reader, will find
matter which will interest him.

I had originally intended to return to Ireland through Hun-
gary, Austria and Czechoslovakia, but the fates decided against
this. My companion on the journey was an Irish agriculturist,
Mr. A. Vere O'Brien, whose practical knowledge of farming was
of great assistance to me. Unfortunately, he became seriously
ill, which necessitated the curtailment of my plans. After a
month in a hospital at Brasov (Cronstadt) he became well
enough to travel again. But traveling in Eastern Europe was very
difficult. The trains were so crowded that, with luck, standing

Tl AUTHOR S PREFACE

room in a corridor only was obtainable. Many persons traveled
on the roofs of the coaches, and I have seen them climbing down
and hanging on between the carriages while passing through a
tunnel! There was only one good train from Rumania west-
ward, the Simplon Orient Express, and as it passed through Jugo-
slavia we had reluctantly to abandon our visit to Hungary and
Austria.

The reports were written under certain disadvantages arising
out of the political situation in Ireland. My diaries, written in
the form of letters, were seized by the British military authori-
ties. Fortunately, my note-books were not discovered, and I have
therefore been able to supply the technical details, but by the loss
of my record of casual remarks and impressions my report has
been deprived of much that would not only have made it pleas-
anter to read but would also have thrown light on the social condi-
tions which influence cooperative movement in the various places
I visited.

I should like to take this opportunity of thanking those who by
their hospitality and kindness made it possible for me to learn
much that would otherwise have been difficult to discover. I
should particularly mention Signor Fortis of Milan, Dr. Costanso
of the International Institute of Agriculture at Rome, Signor
Mami at Bologna, Signor Zanchetta at Treviso, MM. Galyer
and Vukmir at Zagreb, the Secretaries of the Cooperative Unions
at Ljubljana, Split and Sarajevo, and, last but not least in Jugo-
slavia, M. M. Avramovitch and Dr. Prohaska of the Union of
Belgrade, to whom I owe more than I can well express. In
Rumania the Director of the Union of Credit Societies and the
Director of the Union of Agricultural Societies, and M. G.
Mladenatz and M. Teodorescu, who accompanied me on visits to
societies, were all of the greatest assistance and kindness. M.
Lupu also gave me valuable help.

DiARMID COFFEV.

Dublin, Ireland,
/luffust, 1921.

CONTENTS

PAGE

Introduction 1

Part I, — ^The Effects of the War on Cooperation in
Jugoslavia

General Conditions 3

Serbia I 6

Croatia 19

Slovenia 29

Dalmatia _ ^33

Bosnia and Herzegovina.- 35

Industrial Cooperatives in Jugoslavia and General Conclusions 41

Conclusion 43

Part II. — ^The Effects of the War on Cooperation in

Rumania

People's Banks, Agricultural Conditions and the War 45

The New National Organizations.-- 56

Urban Cooperation 65

Part III. — ^The Effects of the War on Cooperation in
North Italy

General Organization 71

Socialist and Catholic Groupings 73

Consumers Societies 75

Cooperative Productive Societies 79

The Movement in Milan 79

The Movement in Genoa 84

The Movement in Venetia 88

The Agricultural Cooperatives 91

Index. 97

INTRODUCTION

The cooperative movement as a whole seems to have survived
the war more successfully than many other forms of enterprise.
In Central Europe reports show that, comparatively speaking, at
least, the cooperative societies have made progress since the
World War. In France and Switzerland all forms of coopera-
tion are flourishing, and in the former there has been some co-
operative effort for reorganizing the devastated areas. In the
countries with which this report deals there can be no doubt that
cooperation has demonstrated its efficiency and elasticity in meet-
ing economic difficulties. Where private enterprise has failed,
cooperation has been able to insure the fair distribution of sup-
plies. It has kept the economic nation alive in many districts
where other forms of trade have actually ceased to function.

This must largely be ascribed to the fact that the cooperative
societies command the confidence of their members and are
therefore regarded as of especial importance when rapid fluctua-
tions in value encourage profiteering and speculative buying. The
value of this confidence is shown by the fact that in Southeastern
Europe not only did the Governments of Serbia and Rumania use
their cooperative societies as the means of distributing essential
commodities, but the Austrian and Hungarian Governments
actually used cooperative societies formed by members of the
subject races of their old dominions both for collecting agricul-
tural products and for distributing manufactured goods.

The more particular reasons why cooperation has gained
rather than lost by the economic catastrophe of the War are :
( 1 ) The increase in the cost of living has made the savings ef-
fected by cooperative purchasing of great importance to the vast
bulk of the people of Europe. (2) The continued necessity of
distributing has controlled necessities of life, such as bread, salt,
flour and tobacco. (3) The general upset of international trade
has made the procuring of the raw materials of agriculture (seeds.

2 INTRODUCTION

manures, etc.) more difficult and has therefore reacted in favor
of cooperative supply. (4) The rapid change from large estates
to small holdings which is taking place in the Balkans and to
tome extent in Italy is causing a development of agricultural co-
operation. (5) The spread of revolutionary and communistic
ideas in Europe has caused the governments of the countries in
question to favor a movement which, by providing a means of
solving economic difficulties, may make actual revolution less
probable.

Cooperation differs greatly in the three countries with which
this report deals. In Jugoslavia it was, except for Serbia itself,
largely political and anti-Austro-Hungarian in its aim. In
Rumania it is very much in the hands of government departments,
and in Italy it is mainly political and in the control of the different
political parties. But dspite these differences the main stream
of cooperation is the same. It is at bottom a democratic move-
ment, with the well-being of the groups of individuals forming the
societies as its object. It is open to all citizens of the state and
in so far its aim is for the well-being of the state. Europe is now
in a state of disorganization and change, and the cooperative
societies everywhere represent a stabilizing element which can
adapt itself to change without violence. In Jugoslavia and
Rumania it is clear that a united cooperative movement will be
a great element of strength. They are both agricultural coun-
tries, where cooperation takes on a simple and unifying form. In
Italy the problem is more difficult and the elements of discord
more obvious. What the end will be there it is impossible to say;
but whatever may happen, Italy is the country which has led the
way in cooperative production and the application of the princi-
ples of cooperation to industry.

PART I

THE EFFECTS OF THE WAR ON COOPERATION IN
JUGOSLAVIA

General Conditions

The cooperative movement in Jugoslavia was strong previous
to the War and has emerged from the struggle stronger than
before; but its orientation has been completely changed and its
character is undergoing great modification. Jugoslavia is formed
of a number of the states which were part of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire but which at the end of the War broke away from that
empire and joined themselves to Serbia. The three main divi-
sions of the population — Serbs, Croats and Slovenes — recognized
the King of Serbia as the head of their united country, and called
their new kingdom the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes
(S. H. S. Monarchy). This is still the official title of the new
state; but the name Jugoslav or Southern Slav is a generic term
for all these people and the name Jugoslavia is more convenient
than S. H. S. Monarchy and is therefore adopted in this report.
It is probable that the name Jugoslavia will be officially recog-
nized before very long, as it is already generally used by the peo-
ple of that country.

The divisions of the country are, first, Serbia, which has been
an independent country since it threw off the last vestiges of the
Turkish yoke at the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. It has an area of
18,650 square miles, and its estimated population in 1911 was
2,957,207, of whom about 2,900,000 belonged to the Greek
Orthodox Church. The country is almost entirely rural. Bel-
grade is the only big town, but it has less than 100,000 inhabi-
tants. The Rivers Save and Danube form the northern bound-
ary of Serbia, and north of the Danube comes the Banat of
Temesvar, a portion of which, at the end of the World War,

4 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN JUGOSLAVIA

cmme into Serbian hands. North of the Save lies Slavonia, and
east of Slavonia, crossing some of the middle ranges of the Save,
Croatia. These two provinces have as their northern boundary
the River Drave and the Danube. They form one administra-
tive whole with its capital at Zagreb (Agram). The area is
16,421 square miles and the population was 2,621,954 in 1910.
The bulk of the population is Serb or Croat, who are respectively
Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic in religion. The principal
town, Zagreb, is the scat of government for these two provinces,
which up to the end of the War were under Hungarian rule.
There is very little manufacturing in the country. It is chiefly
agricultural and pastoral.

West of Croatia lies the country of the Slovenes, Carinthia,
part of Styria and Carniola. At the time this report was com-
piled the question remained unsettled as to whether the Klagen-
furt area of Carinthia should be Austrian or Jugoslav, but the
result of the Klagenfurt plebiscite has given the whole of the
district to Austria. The southern portion of Styria forms part
of Jugoslavia. Carniola, with its capital Ljubljana (Laibach),
is the most important part of the Slovene district and had a meas-
ure of local autonomy under the Austrian Government. East of
this again lie Istria and Goritzia, which have a mixed population
of Italians and Slavs and which have been assigned to Italy. The
area of Carniola is 3,989 square miles and the population is about
530,000, practically all Roman Catholic. There are a few
industries in Laibach and the surrounding district. The coun-
try is rather hilly. The total Slovene population of the Aus-
trian Dominions was given as 1,252,940 in 1910. South of
Croatia and running along the Adriatic Coast is Dalmatia, with an
area of 4,955 square miles and a population of about 670,000,
chiefly Croat Roman Catholic. At the time of the making of
this report there was a dispute between Jugoslavia and Italy as to
ownership of a portion of the Dalmatian Coast and Islands,
which was settled at the Treaty of Rapallo. That treaty as-
signed practically the whole to Jugoslavia, but left the Italians
some control over the town of Zara and some other towns and
islands. Split (Spalato) is the capital and seat of the local gov-

GENERAL CONDITIONS 5

ernment, which was at Zara under Austrian control. East of
Dalmatia, lying between that province and the Kingdom of Serbia,
are Bosnia and Herzegovina, which were occupied and adminis-
tered by the joint Austro-Hungarian Government from the
Treaty of Berlin in 1878 until October, 1908, when the two
provinces were formally annexed. The area is 19,768 square
miles and the estimated population in 1912 was 1,962,411, of
whom 626,000 were Mohammedan, 856,000 Greek Orthodox
and 451,000 Roman Catholic. The population is mixed — Serb
and Croat; the Roman Catholics are Croat, the Greek Catholics
are Serb and the Mohammedans may belong to either race but
are not Turks.

The language spoken throughout the whole country is the
Southern Slav language, which is very like Russian. It is pos-
sible for an inhabitant from one part of the country to understand
one from another part; the difference in dialect is said to be not
greater than the difference in English dialect; the noticeable dis-
tinction is that the Serbs use the Cyrillic alphabet, which is much
like Russian, while the Croats and Slovenes use the Roman char-
acter, but an educated man can easily read either character, and
the distinction is not of much more importance than the use of
Gaelic or Roman characters in Gaelic, or German or Roman
characters in German. The religion has been mentioned in each
case, as broadly speaking it distinguishes the Serb from the Croat
or Slovene, and as will be seen in later stages of this report it has
played an important part in the prewar development of coopera-
tion throughout Jugoslavia.

As may be seen above, the whole population is predominantly
rural. There is no big manufacturing town in the whole coun-
try, and except on the Dalmatian Coast, where there is a certain
amount of fishing, the population depends directly upon the land
for its support. The towns are administrative and distributing
centers. As far as cooperation is concerned, outside of Zagreb
there is hardly any hon-rural cooperation, but there is a strong
agricultural cooperative movement in every province, based chiefly
on credit societies of the Raiffeisen type, which have developed
various forms of activity.

6 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN JUGOSLAVIA

Up to and during the War, what is now the cooperative move-
ment of Jugoslavia was divided into four main branches:
(I) cooperation in Serbia proper; (2) cooperation in those dis-
tricts which are under Hungarian rule; (3) cooperation in dis-
tricts under Austrian rule; and (4) cooperation in Bosnia and
Herzegovina under joint Austrian and Hungarian rule.

In Croatia, which is under Hungarian rule, there were three
types of society : ( 1 ) societies encouraged and partly financed
by the Hungarian Government, which group has practically dis-
appeared; (2) Croat societies, and (3) Serb societies. Both of
these latter are largely controlled by the priests of the Roman
Catholic and Greek Churches, respectively. Neither had gov-
ernment support, but each was regarded with suspicion by the
Hungarian Government, which, however, encouraged anything
which kept the two races disunited, and on the whole favored
the Croat rather than the Serb society. In Slovenia the co-
operative societies were divided into clerical and anti-clerical, the
latter being slightly, but only slightly, socialistic in tendency.
In Dalmatia there were no visible traces of such divisions, though
it is possible that the Italian element, where it is strong enough,
may produce a division there ; but at the time of writing, the Ital-
ians and the Croats were strictly kept down in districts occupied
by the other nation and had little opportunity of expressing them-
selves. In Bosnia and Herzegovina the distinction between
Serb and Croat societies was much the same as in Croatia. The
Mohammedans had no societies. The cooperators of Jugoslavia
wish to form one united movement out of these various elements,
and the steps they are taking to secure this unity will be dealt
with in the conclusion of this section of the report.

Serbia

The cooperative movement in Serbia proper is a united move-
ment. Its difficulties were considerably less than in the other
parts of the country, because Serbia was a united and independent
country without the strong religious and political divisions which
mark the other portions of Jugoslavia.

The moving spirit of cooperation in Serbia is M. Avramo-
vitch, to whose energy and enthusiasm cooperation in that coun-

SERBIA 7

try owes a very great debt. M. Avramovitch is still far from
being an old man, and he has seen his work bear fruit and what is
sure to be lasting fruit, and now it is likely that he will unite all
Jugoslavia in one consolidated cooperative movement, which will
lead the Jugoslav peasantry into a better, more prosperous and
more social life than has hitherto been possible for them.

The first cooperative society in Serbia was founded in 1894
and by 1910 there were 908 societies, of which 615 were credit
societies, 42 distributive societies, 153 machinery societies, 12
dairies and 3 wine societies. There was also a central bank, with
its headquarters at Belgrade, for lending money to and receiving
deposits from societies. The bank also supplied seeds, chemicals,
manures, agricultural machinery, etc., and in 1909 it had granted
loans to the value of 968,000 dinars and received deposits of
320,000. The state lent the bank 2,000,000 dinars free of inter-
est; 5 per cent was charged by the bank for loans and 4 per cent
interest was paid on deposits. The bank does not distribute a
dividend and its profits and reserves are indivisible, so that if it
should ever come to be liquidated, after the state loan has been
repaid, any money over must go to some public purpose. The
figures and facts given above were supplied by M. Avramovitch
to the International Institute of Agriculture at Rome in 1910.
The invasion of Serbia by the Austrians in 1914 and the Balkan
Wars of 1912—13 made it difficult to obtain accurate informa-
tion about cooperation during those years ; but according to state-
ments made to the writer by M. Avramovitch, there were in 1914
about 1,200 societies, with a membership of about 80,000. Of
these societies, 800 were credit societies, 200 agricultural con-
sumers societies, 154 machinery societies, 8 wine societies and
40 for the insurance of livestock.

During the War the whole of Serbia was occupied by enemy
forces, and as a result the cooperative movement was brought to
a complete standstill, though in some cases the machinery of the
societies was used by the invaders in a way that made it easy to
re-form them. It may thus be said that for the period of the
War the history of cooperation in Serbia is a complete blank. As
soon as the Serbs were able to reoccupy their country, M.
Avramovitch set himself to the reorganization of the cooperative

8 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN JUGOSLAVIA

movement, and by June, 1920, there were about 800 societies, of
which 600 were old societies revived and 200 were newly formed.
The whole work of revival was so new and was proceeding so
rapidly that M. Avramovitch was not able to give definite and
accurate figures of the growth of his movement since the war, but
the figures given above may be taken as being a near approxima-
tion to the actual state of affairs. But the revived movement
differs to a considerable extent from the movement before the
War, and this difference, as might be expected, is practically uni-
versal throughout the countries of Europe with which the present
writer is acquainted. Before the War the need of credit was
greatly felt by the farming community in general, and this was
particularly the case in undeveloped countries like Serbia. The
War, however, exercised a profound effect upon the economic state
of the rural population. Prices of all foodstuffs rose enormously
and at the same time the spending power of the farmer was
greatly restricted, owing to the difficulty of procuring goods.
As a result, at the end of the War the average peasant found him-
self with large supplies of money, though probably not greatly
increased wealth, as he had less stock, and, owing to the difficulty
of obtaining fertilizers, his land had in many cases deteriorated in
quality. An obvious result of this was that for the moment he
did not need credit but had a large amount of currency to deposit.
Almost invariably it is found that in credit societies before the
War the loans greatly exceeded the deposits and after the War
the deposits exceeded the loans. On the other hand, there was
a general shortage of manufactured articles and in fact of every-
thing which could not be grown or produced in the immediate
district. Transport in Eastern Europe was slow and bad, rail-
way bridges were usually temporary structures, over which a train
could pass only very slowly, rolling-stock was heavily depleted
and out of repair, and fuel was bad and insufficient. The need,
therefore, was not credit societies but supply societies, which were
organized for the distribution of the necessities of life and manu-
factured goods in general. The formation of these societies was
to some extent stimulated by the fact that the government used

SERBIA 9

cooperative societies of all kinds for the distribution of govern-
ment monopolies, such as tobacco and salt, during the War.

The Union of Serbian Cooperative Societies at Belgrade
{Glavni savez Srpskih Zemljoradnickih zadruga), of which M.
Avramovitch is secretary, is at once an organizing and a whole-
sale society. Its function as an organizing body consists of giv-
ing advice and help to societies which get into difficulties, auditing
their accounts and lending money through the cooperative bank
which is affiliated with the Union. Besides the inspection work,
the Union has courses in the theory of cooperation, accounting
and bookkeeping, cooperative law, management, etc. Its whole-
sale business is carried on in a storehouse attached to the head-
quarters of the Union, which has stores of the chief necessities
of life. Since the demand for loans has fallen off, the whole-
sale business has expanded; the general need of supplies felt
throughout Serbia has caused a great increase in the wholesale
trade. This makes up for the decrease in profits through the
bank. The societies pay 10 per cent of their profits to the Union,
which is the primary source of revenue.

Serbia is very badly developed as regards transport. There
are very few lines of railway and most of the roads are mere
tracks, though some main roads have been made and must at one
time have been good, but the result of heavy traffic during the
War has greatly reduced their quality. During the winter
months, when there is not sufficient snow for sledges, the by-
roads are practically impassable. This does not, however, very
seriously interfere with the economic side of the nation, as what
is lost in the easy supply of manufactured goods is gained in the
practical self-sufficiency of each district. The Serbian clothes are
practically all home-made from wool spun by the women and
woven by them. They also weave cotton yarn and hemp, which
latter is grown in the country. Some cotton is grown in the
southern part of the country; silk is also produced. The princi-
pal crops are wheat, barley, oats, maize, rye and roots; a consid-
erable quantity of plums are grown and a strong form of brandy
made from them, and the cultivation of vines for wine-making is

10 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN JUGOSLAVIA

pretty general. Cattle-raising and dairy products form another
important part of the national economy.

Owing to the difficulties of transport, which were greatly ac-
centuated by the bad condition of the railways already referred
to, it was necessary to confine the visits to societies to a small area,
and all the societies to which particular reference will be made
as examples of the type of society found in Serbia lie in a district
about 40 miles south of Belgrade, and in no case more than 10
miles from the main line of railway to Nish and Constantinople.
The societies in this area are some of the best in the country and
include agricultural distributive societies, implement societies,
wine societies and credit societies.

The first society visited was at Mladenovac, a railway station
and small country town, where there is a consumers' society, one
of the few distributive societies which are not purely rural. It
had been founded only seven months and its membership was
75, composed chiefly of employes of the state (post office, rail-
way, etc.) and very few peasant members. The chief goods sup-
plied were sugar, coflfee, rice, boots and shoes, clothes, etc., al-
though it supplied a small quantity of agricultural seeds and
manures. Its supplies were bought from the Union of Serbian
Societies at Belgrade. The fact that Mladenovac is a town im-
plies that there is a greater demand for manufactured goods and
for foodstuffs than in a purely agricultural district. The capital
of the society is 8,000 dinars, divided into shares of 50 dinars, of
which no member may hold more than ten shares. The turnover
averages from 5,000 to 6,000 dinars a month, but occasionally
the difficulty of getting supplies is so great that business is prac-
tically suspended. The society sells considerably cheaper than
ordinary shops; for example, coflfee was selling at 20 dinars a kilo
and the current price was 24. The local shopkeepers naturally
disliked the society, but so far have made no eflforts to organize
to undersell it. There was no society in Mladenovac before the
War and perhaps local traders had not yet grasped the idea of
trying to ruin the society by selling for a time at a loss. The
secretary of the society, from whom this information was ob-
tained, was teacher for the local state school, and a full-time

SERBIA 11

manager was employed at a salary of 450 dinars a month. It is
probable that the cooperative society in Mladenovac will grow
into an important one, as arrangements were being made to start
a corn-selling society, which the peasants of the surrounding dis-
tricts and their cooperative societies were to finance, and it was
expected that the state would also come to their assistance.
This would undoubtedly cause the cooperative society in Mlade-
novac to become of more importance to peasants of the neighbor-
hood. The existing society is an example of a society largely
created by post-war conditions and the scarcity of supplies.

At Koracica, about six miles from Mladenovac, there are three
agricultural societies, a threshing society and a supply society.
The village of Koracica is a small group of scattered houses.
The peasants are practically all small farmers, with farms rang-
ing from 15 to 30 acres; the biggest farm in the district is only
125 acres. The land is good, a considerable number of cattle
and pigs are reared and wheat is grown. There are also orchards
and most of the houses have small vegetable patches. The
credit society was founded in 1900 by 6S members and in two
years increased to 108, but by 1912 it had fallen to 30 members.
The reason given by the secretary for this falling off was that the
president of the society took more interest in politics than in
cooperation, and as a result he offended a large number of the
members. Up to the beginning of the World War the member-
ship remained at 30 and during the War the work of the society
was suspended altogether. On the Austrians occupying the coun-
try, the secretary hid in his shoes such money as he had belonging
to the society and tried to escape to southern Serbia. He was
not able to make good his escape and had to return, but succeeded
in concealing the money. The Austrians destroyed all the books
of the society and demolished its premises and furniture, and the
result was that it was possible to get only a general statement as
to the condition of the society before the War.

The credit society has first of all a savings fund into which
each member is compelled to pay one dinar a week. The sum
formed by these savings can not be withdrawn without the con-
sent of the committee of the society, and if a member wishes

12 THE CXX)PERATIVE MOVEMENT IN JUGOSLAVIA

money he must borrow from the society. On the death of a
member his savings are payable to his family, but in most cases
they nominate one among themselves to take the place of the
deceased member. Six per cent is paid on savings and 10 per
cent is charged for loans. Besides this compulsory savings fund,
members are entitled to deposit money, on which 8 per cent is
paid. The society which was founded in 1900 bought a steam
threshing set in 1902, which was used to thresh for both mem-
bers and non-members. The payment for the threshing was
taken in kind, 5 per cent being taken from members and 8 per
cent from non-members. As the books were destroyed, it was
not possible to obtain any accurate figures as to the progress of
this society. Figures for the year 1912, however, were avail-
able, in which year the savings amounted to 4,098 dinars, deposits
to 1,284 dinars, loans to 1,576 dinars, the reserve fund to 500
dinars, and that year the reserve was spent on repairing the
threshing-machine. The next year for which any figures could
be procured was the year 1919, when the savings had reached
4,143 dinars and the reserve fund no less than 6,000 dinars. This
large increase in the reserve fund in the first year after the War
was made out of dealings in grain, which was at a very high price
in 1919. There were no deposits and no loans made in that year,
and the reserve was all spent again in repairing the threshing-
machine, which had suffered from want of renewals during the
War. Membership in 1919 increased to 120, or four times the
pre-war number. This increase is partly accounted for by the fact
that, owing to an alteration in the Serbian law, a society which
deals with members only is entitled to a reduction of taxation.
Up to July, 1920, the savings of the society amountd to 4,669
dinars. From this account it would appear as though the thresh-
ing society and the credit society were one. In theory, they are
two separate societies, and the threshing society continued to
work right through the War during the Austrian occupation,
while the credit society was brought to a complete standstill. But
when it is realized that the committee of these two societies were
the same persons, the membership the same, that the books of the
prewar and war periods were lost, and that since the War the ac-

SERBIA 13

counts of the two societies have been kept as a single account, the
reader can easily understand that it is very difficult to distinguish
between them. The noticeable fact in the above account is that
since the War there have been neither deposits nor loans and
that the credit society is simply a sort of savings bank which also
makes money by owning a threshing society.

The reason why there are no loans or deposits is that the need
for loans has practically disappeared, for the reasons already
given, while deposits have been attracted to an agricultural sup-
ply society, which was formed in 1910 by the same 30 members
who formed the credit and threshing society. Its original capital
was 66S dinars, and it took deposits which came to 1,561 dinars.
The society had a somewhat inglorious existence up to 1912, when
its membership had dropped to 28. From 1912 to 1919 no
figures were to be had; by July, 1920, there were 150 members
and 50 new applications for membership, but the new members
had to wait to be enrolled, as in Serbia the approval of a district
magistrate is necessary for the enrollment of members of a co-
operative society. The society completely disappeared during
the War, so that it may be said that this agricultural society is
practically a new creation. In 1912 its turnover came to only
about 2,000 dinars, while in 1919 purchases amounted to 33,600
dinars and sales to 31,400 dinars, and in July the capital con-
sisted of 3,295 dinars share capital and 3,079 dinars deposits, a
total of 6,374 dinars. The society deals in but few commodities,
as the district is practically self-supporting. Its chief business is
in clothes and copper sulphate; coffee, salt and matches are dis-
tributed through the society by the commune, but are controlled
articles. It had just begun to buy pigs and sheep from its mem-
bers, kill them and sell the dressed meat, but this is only a very
small business and amounts to about three animals a month. ^

The members of all the societies in Koracica are much inter-
ested in the proposed grain society at Mladenovac, which they
think will be a great benefit to the country.

* It is interesting to note in this connection that during the last years of the War
several Irish agricultural cooperative societies started killing pigs for the benefit
of their members.

14 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN JUGOSLAVIA

The biggest wine society in the country is at Selo-Banja, about

15 miles from Koracica. The road is partly an absolute track.
with ruts varying from a few inches to a couple of feet deep, and
partly a high road, sections of which are excellent and sections
almost impassable. Selo-Banja is near a light railway running
from Mladenovac to Arangjelovac. The society was founded
in 1903 by 19 members; each member took one share of 50
dinars for every thousand vines he owned, and the Cooperative
Union at Belgrade lent the society two dinars for every dinar of
share capital subscribed. This money was repaid by setting
aside 5 paras (centimes) for every liter of wine sold. The
original share capital was 7,000 dinars, so that the society started
with a total of 21,000 dinars. It was four years before the
society had erected its buildings and actually started making wine,
and 13 wagon-loads of grapes were made into wine in 1907.
Each wagon holds about 10,000 kilos of grapes which makes
about 6,000 kilos of wine. By 1911 the society had increased
to 100 members, and the capacity of the cellars had to be en-
larged from 15 wagon-loads to 95. The books of the society
were lost during the War, so that all the information prior to
1918 was derived from the recollection of members, except the
price paid for the grapes. In 1911 the share capital was about
50,000 dinars and there was no appreciable change up to the be-
ginning of the War. The society buys grapes at the market price
from members only and does not trade with non-members, and a
bonus is paid out of the profits made when the wine is sold. The
following prices per 100 kilograms show the benefit gained by
the members of the society :

Market price Society's price
Dinars Dinars

1911 21.24 30.65

1912 24.65 26.67

1913 21.78 38.68

1914 29J7 44.48

The Austrians had not reached Selo-Banja until October 25,
1915, just at the end of the wine-making season. They seized
about 6,000 kilos of old wine, 132,000 kilos of new wine, and
2,000 kilos of brandy. They also seized the society's buildings

SERBIA 15

and continued to work the society, but in their own interest and
not cooperatively. They, however, paid for the grapes they
used at a very fair rate, namely, 40 crowns per hundred kilos in
1916 and 50 crowns per hundred kilos in 1917. The rate of
exchange between the crown and the dinar was quite artificial, as
the Austrians compelled the Serbians to take 1 crown for 2
dinars.

After the War, the Jugoslav Government stabilized the crown
at the artificial price of 4 crowns to 1 dinar. The value of money
had fallen very heavily between 1914 and 1918, when the Aus-
trians retired. The society was re-formed as quickly as possible
after the retreat of the Austrians and actually restarted work
on October 26, 1919, exactly four years from the date of its
capture. In that year it made 36 wagons of grapes into wine,
for which it paid 185 dinars per 100 kilos. There were 103 mem-
bers on the re-forming of the society and by July, 1920, this num-
ber had risen to 107. The principal damage done by the Austrians
was that they removed most of the small barrels belonging to the
society and a number of coopers were busily at work making new
barrels.

The society does not confine itself to wine-making, but does a
small trade in all kinds of agricultural requirements. The
finance of the society is much simplified by credit given by the
Union at Belgrade. The usual procedure is that when the grapes
have been brought to the society an estimate is made of the value
of the crop and 75 per cent of this sum is borrowed from the
Union. The market price is then paid for the grapes and when
the wine is finally sold the Union is repaid and the balance of
profit is distributed among the members in proportion to the
grapes supplied. The interest charged by the Union for these
short-term loans is 5 per cent and only 3 per cent is charged for
long-term loans on buildings. There is a binding rule compelling
members to sell their grapes to the society, similar to the rule
compelling the owners of cows to bring their milk to Irish cream-
eries, and they are also compelled to keep their vineyards in
order, subject to inspection by officers of the society. A mem-
ber may resign, but his capital is retained for two years as a

16 THE CX)OPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN JUGOSLAVIA

security against any damage the society may suffer by his resigna-
tion; the liability of shareholders is unlimited. Roughly, one
third of the farmers of the district are members of the society.
The reason for this comparatively small membership is stated to
be local political enmity and personal quarrels in the district.
It is to be hoped this regrettable state of affairs will not continue;
the society as such is quite non-political.

The manager of another wine society at Smederevo (Semen-
dria), a town on the Danube about 30 miles below Belgrade,
stated that his society, which was founded in 1909 and began to
work in 1911, had suffered more heavily than the society at Selo-
Banja, as Smederevo was the scene of heavy fighting, in the course
of which the buildings were partially destroyed by fire, and
finally the Austrians on their retreat blew up a large ammunition
dun^, which added to the destruction. They estimated the dam-
age and loss involved at 600,000 dinars. This society started
with a capital of 30,000 dinars and 25 members and increased to
35 members in 1914. It is run on almost exactly similar lines
to the society at Selo-Banja, except that the liability of members
is limited to ten times their shareholding. The prices paid for
grapes per 100 kilograms are as follows :

Market price Society's price
Dinars Dinars

1911 23.10 23.50

1912 23.55 35.97

191S 32.70 53.69

1914 40.77 62.80

This society had just restarted work in 1920. Smederevo was
also the seat of a big grain society which was completely destroyed
during the War, but its rebuilding was in progress in 1920.

The Markovec Agricultural Society, about 20 miles beyond
Mladenovac on the line from Belgrade to Nish, is the most suc-
cessful agricultural store in Serbia and in many ways one of the
most remarkable of its kind to be found anywhere.

Markovec is a scattered village something like Koracica and
Selo-Banja. The Agricultural Society has a two-story building,
a rare thing in Serbian rural districts. As usual, the books were
lost or destroyed during the Austrian invasion, so that informa-

SERBIA 17

tion about the Society was procurable only from the recollections
of the manager and members. All that was to be learned of
the prewar history of the Society was, briefly, that it was founded
in 1902 by 25 members, each of whom held one lO-dinar share.
They sold sugar, salt, coffee, oil, etc. By 1906 the accumulated
profits of the Society amounted to 30,000 dinars, 10,000 of which
they spent on building the premises where they are at present sit-
uated. By 1915 membership had risen to 300. Then came the
Austrians, who seized everything belonging to the Society, to the
value of about 80,000 dinars, and did not pay one penny compen-
sation.

The large amount of goods in the Society dated from the
Turkish and Bulgarian Wars of 1913, which had had the result
of reducing demand and, therefore, left considerable stocks in
the hands of the Society. Before the War the Society did a
large business in selling its members' products — maize, wheat,
corn, eggs, etc.

The Society did not get to work again until January, 1920,
and the turnover for the first six months of that year was 126,000
dinars, almost entirely derived from the sales to members. The
only sales made on behalf of members were 6,000 eggs, valued at
1,200 dinars. This was a great falling off since 1915, when they
had sold 15 wagons of maize, 3 wagons of wheat and a very large
quantity of eggs. The Society deals with non-members, but as
there are about 300 members and only 250 houses in the district
the non-members' trade is not great. It deals in all classes of the
necessaries of agriculturists, including clothes, foodstuffs, seeds
and manures, etc. Besides being an ordinary agricultural store,
the Society acts as a credit bank and performs the function both
of the Raiffeisen and Schulze-Delitzsch Bank. It lends money
both to agriculturists on ordinary short-term credits and to
artisans, shoemakers, etc., and sells the products of these latter
on commission. It also takes deposits, which in 1915 amounted
to 15,000 dinars; 10 per cent is charged for loans and 7 per cent
is paid on deposits. Deposits up to 1,000 dinars are withdraw-
able without notice. The Society has also made arrangements for
lendingmoney on long-term loans to help members to build houses.

18 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN JUGOSLAVIA

In addition to this, if a member dies leaving no grown family to
run his farm, the Society itself will manage the farm for a year to
give the member's widow or orphans an opportunity of cither dis-
posing of the farm or else of making arrangements to carry it on.

Besides the various economic works above referred to, the
Society undertakes social work. Before the War it had a read-
ing room and library, and although the percentage of illiteracy
in Serbia is high * about 40 members used the library and mem-
bers who could read would read aloud to those who could
not. All the young people could read, and the reading room and
library was a useful social center. The Society also employed
a doctor to come twice a week to visit the members, and as med-
ical service in Serbia are not yet developed this was a most useful
work. Both these forms of activity had come to a stop owing to
the War when the Austrians looted the Society and had not been
reestablished by July, 1920, but the Society means to reestablish
them at the first opportunity. They had not yet been able to
find a new doctor to pay them visits, but this was occupying their
minds. They propose adding a bath-house to their other build-
ings.

To finance its various reconstructive schemes the Society ob-
tained a credit of 100,000 dinars from the Union at Belgrade.
Up to July, 1920, they had borrowed 70,000 dinars and repaid
50,000. The members have so thoroughly acquired the habit
of bringing all their spare money to the Society that it never has
to borrow large sums for a long period. Before the War the
Union used to charge 4 per cent for this accommodation, but since
the War it has charged 7 per cent. The Society is governed by
two committees, each of three members only — one an executive
committee and the second a supervisory committee. The Society
has had a little trouble with the local shopkeepers, but is on ex-
cellent terms with the dealers in corn, eggs, etc.

This Society is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable in-
stances of cooperative success in a rural district in the world,
which is in a great measure due to the devotion and skill of M.

* lo 1900 only 17 per cent of the population could read and write, but there has
been a great improvement tincc then.

CROATIA 19

Milojavich, the manager, who has devoted himself to the Society
from the beginning. He has found it possible to keep complete
harmony in the Society. On a few occasions when conduct of a
member has been detrimental to the interests of the community,
the man is given a warning that if he does not reform himself
within a certain time he will be expelled from the Society. But
so far no member has been expelled, because, as M. Milojavich
has said, "if we expel a man we lose the whole family, and if the
father is not good he may have a good son and it would be a pity
to lose the son." M. Milojavich's position lends a somewhat
patriarchal air to Markovec and it is probable that so successful
and active a Society in a somewhat backward country like Serbia
must always owe a great part of its success to the presence of one
exceptional man. M. Milojavich may be compared with Mr.
Paddy Gallagher of Dungloe in Donegal, who, dealing with a
somewhat similar population, has transformed his district from
being one of the poorest into being one of the most prosperous in
Ireland. But such a society as the one at Markovec tends to be
imitated in a greater or less degree and so raise the whole tone of
the cooperative movement with which it is associated.

With M. Avramovitch as head of the movement in Serbia
and a few men like M. Milojavich to help him, it may be said
that there is every prospect that cooperation in Serbia will lead,
as much as follow, the agricultural cooperative movements in the
world.

Croatia

The cooperative movement in Croatia was originally divided
into three main bodies: first, cooperation among the Croats; sec-
ond, cooperation among the Serbs; and third, cooperation organ-
ized by the Hungarian Government. The last named was or-
ganized as a central credit society at Agram and Osijeh. It had
considerable state aid. According to the Bulletin of the Inter-
national Institute of Agriculture at Rome, by the end of 1900 it
had formed 271 societies, with a membership of 54,952. The
object of the society was principally furnishing credit to facilitate
tTie purchase of agricultural machinery and seeds and the purchase
of cattle, in all of which works the state came to the aid of the

20 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN JUGOSLAVIA

cooperator. This organization seems to have disappeared en-
tirely. At the Congress of Jugoslav Cooperative Societies, held
in Zagreb in June, 1920, this organization was not represented,
and any inquiries as to Hungarian cooperative societies were met
with the reply that before the War the Hungarian Government
had organized cooperative societies as a Magyarizing influence,
had given large subventions to these societies, and had in every
way tried to induce the peasantry to join them rather than the
Serbian or Croatian societies, but that on the separation of
Croatia from Hungary the whole of this Hungarian organization
had collapsed like a pack of cards, and no trace of it is to be found.
It is said that a few individual societies maintained their existence.
It was really impossible for a foreigner to judge what actually
happened, as no doubt any Hungarian oflicial organization would
be greatly suspected after the change of government and would,
at the very least, have to lie low for a time.

The other organizations of Croats and Serbs, however, were
very active before the War. The political situation was such
that both the Croats and the Serbs wished to use every organiza-
tion they possessed to prevent themselves from becoming
Magyarized, and for this reason the cooperative movements al-
ways had a semi-political basis, and were regarded with extreme
distrust by the Hungarian Government, which, however, was
accustomed to play off the Serb against the Croat and so tried
to keep the two sections as divided as possible. The local gov-
ernment of Croatia and Slavonia gave certain subsidies to the
Croatian and Serb Unions for special purposes and they of course
came under the general cooperative law, but in spite of these
subsidies and restrictions the unions remained distinctly political
and free from government influence.

There are three organizations of rural cooperative societies in
Zagreb. The first is the Union of Croatian Rural Cooperative
Societies, which has grown out of the Agrarian Bank, a financial
institution opened in 1901 for the benefit of cooperative societies.
At the end of 1909 this organization included 225 societies with
34,350 members. Besides purely credit business, which amounted
to 4,470,000 crowns, it dealt in agricultural goods to the value of

CROATIA 21

1,385,000. The number of societies before the War in 1914 had
risen to 293; on December 31, 1919, there were 313 with 42,449
members or an average of 135 per society, and societies were
being formed at so rapid a rate that by June there were 362 socie-
ties. The increase in societies is solely post-war, as during the
War no new societies were formed. After the War it was found
that mere affiliation with the Agrarian Bank was not a satisfac-
tory form of organization for the cooperative societies, whose
business was not by any means credit only, but which were begin-
ning to take up all forms of rural cooperative activity. There-
fore, the Union of Croatian Rural Cooperative Societies was
formed, which is separate from the Agrarian Bank. The new
Union is very active and has acquired a site close to the railway
where it is building a large store to act as a central wholesale
store, both for members' necessities and for selling produce. The
store is connected with the railway by siding, and they further
hope to set up a factory for the manufacture of fertilizers. The
Union comprises 313 societies, which have a total of 42,449 mem-
bers. The capital to the credit of the Union to the end of 1919
was as follows :

Crotvns Croiuns

Total receipts 4,671,000 Personal property of societies 1,134,500

Share capital 488,801 Stocks in warehouse 10,000,000

Reserves 1,464,600 Savings deposited 6,000,000

Current accounts 18,000,000 Various securities (bonds, etc.) 628,000

Of course it must be remembered that the value of money has
gone down very heavily since 1914.

The second organization originated in the Croatian-Slavonian
Agricultural Society, which was an old society founded in 1847
for the purpose of teaching better methods of agriculture, but
which in 1911 formed itself into a cooperative society, which con-
cerned itself with the supplying of farm requisites and selling the
products of its members, though it continues its primary function
of trying to improve the knowledge of agriculture by propaganda.

The third society is the Union of Serbian Rural Banks, founded
in 1897. By 1909 it had 2,097 societies with 10,031 members.
By 1912 there were 354 societies, of which 216 were in Croatia
and Slavonia and 138 in Hungary. This Union is not purely

22 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN JUGOSLAVIA

Croatian, but was formed to be a rallying point for the Serbs
throughout all the Hungarian Dominions. In 1914 it had 367
societies, which meant a large increase in the number of societies
in Croatia and Slavonia. In 1920 there were about 400 societies
with about 26,000 members. This increase was wholly post-war,
as during the War the Serbian Union was regarded with extreme
distrust by the Hungarian Government and was practically closed
down. The increase is in a way greater than appears, as by the
Pact of London 10 Serbian societies were lost to Hungary and
25 to Rumania. It is not hard to see why this closing down took
place, because both the Serbian and Croatian Unions were re-
garded by their founders largely as an organization for consoli-
dating the Roman Catholic and the Greek Catholic Slav popula-
tion of the Hungarian Empire, respectively, and the Serb Union
was particularly anti-Hungarian and was the special object of
Count Tisza's enmity. The Serbian Union was so entirely con-
ceived with this idea that it tried to form its societies of never
more than 100 members, so that each society would be so small
that every member would know what the other members were
doing, and if they saw any member tending to become Magyarized
they would at once take steps to bring him to reason. In fact,
the average society had only about 35 members, though in a few
cases membership exceeded 100, and one society had 155 mem-
bers. In villages where there was a large Serb population the
custom was to have several societies and the slogan of the move-
ment was, "Serbs, do not give up your land to Austrians or Hun-
garians, but work to save and keep it for the Serbs." The
society worked on the usual Raiffeisen system, but in addition to
this had a compulsory weekly payment of 10 to 20 hellers, which
the member had to pay personally each Sunday. The sum thus
accumulated could be withdrawn in five years. This rule was
partly designed with the object of making the members meet
once a week and so keep the unity on the Sunday intact.

As 80 per cent of the population was illiterate, the necessity of
frequent personal contact as a means of preserving unity was
greater than would be the case in a more advanced community.
It was impossible to get statistics of this society for later than

CROATIA 23

1912, as the political situation which rose out of the Balkan War
of 1913 affected the societies to such a degree that no information
was to be had.

The Serbian population of Croatia is on the whole very poor
and had evidently been in a very depressed condition, because it
was found that when the society was founded the old men would
not join it. The societies were much encouraged by the Greek
Church clergy, of whom 128 were members. The membership
also included 130 teachers, 184 business men, chiefly small shop-
keepers, and 648 village artisans, smiths, cobblers, tailors, etc.
All the rest of the 13,000 members were either small holders or
agricultural laborers, but owned between them about 40,000,000
crowns' worth of property, or an average of about 10,000 crowns
a head, or £500.

All these societies, besides doing their usual credit business, now
trade in seeds, manures, machinery, etc.

As has been indicated above, the societies belonging to the Ser-
bian and Croatian Unions are principally credit societies, which
also deal In agricultural necessaries, and sometimes sell on behalf
of their members. Before the War the loans always exceeded
deposits, but In Croatia, as in other parts of Europe, an effect of
the War has been to Increase the amount of ready cash in farmers'
hands, though their stocks, particularly of cattle, have been
greatly reduced. The societies belonging to the Union formed
from the Croatian and Slavonian Agricultural Societies were prin-
cipally buying and selling societies. As In Serbia, there is a gen-
eral tendency to increase the buying and selling societies and to
make these the important branch of the work, while temporarily
at least the credit side is comparatively unimportant. It is pos-
sible that the fact that the cooperative societies were used dur-
ing the War as distributing agencies for goods controlled by the
Austro-Hungarian Government may have something to do with
hastening the change from purely credit work, but it should be
mentioned that M. Avramovitch, who is undoubtedly the au-
thority on cooperation in Jugoslavia, thinks that this using of the
societies as distributing agencies has not had any appreciable
effect upon their nature, though it may lead to the founding of

24 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN JUGOSLAVIA

rural consumers societies, as it will have given members the
habit of going to their societies for goods. The chief goods con-
trolled by the state and distributed through the societies were
flour, potatoes, coal and paraffin oil, which cover a large section
of the necessities of life. In view of this tendency it is well to
describe the only cooperative store society belonging to the Croa-
tian Union. It is situated in a small village, Veliki Bulcovec.
Bukovec is a small village lying about 50 miles north of Zagreb
and about 4 miles south of the River Drave, on the plain which
runs straight through Central Hungary. It is a scattered village
of about 1,000 inhabitants and is part of a parish with a total
population of about 7,000. These figures were obtained from
the parish priest, and they are probably approximately accurate,
but to outward appearances the village looked as if it could not
have more than 100 inhabitants. The country around is divided
into vast open fields, each of which is divided into small plots of
from a quarter of an acre to an acre. There are no fences be-
tween the plots; each plot is owned by a different man, and though
one man may own many plots it is unlikely that any two of them
will be contiguous. The general effect is a large field of small
experimental plots. The chief crops are maize and peas planted
together, wheat, barley, oats, beets, lucerne and other forage
crops. There is one big landowner in the district with a very up-
to-date farm with tractors, threshing machine and a mill, which
supplies electric light to part of the village and grinds grain for
the whole district.

There are two cooperative societies, one a credit society and
the other a store society. The parish priest is the vice-president
and general adviser of both societies; the big landowner is presi-
dent, but as he resides at Bukovec for only part of the year he is
not able to keep in very close touch with the societies. The credit
society was founded in 1901 as an ordinary Raiffeisen society.
The books and money are kept by the parish priest; it has also a
small library and reading room and occasionally procures lec-
turers to give talks on agricultural subjects. Before the War the
society loaned up to a limit of 1,500 crowns, and in 1920, owing to
a depreciation of the crown, it loaned up to 15,000. The small-

CROATIA

est loan used to be about 60 crowns, but had risen to 400. The
average loan is for three years and the maximum period for which
a loan is made is six years. Loans were made at 7 per cent and
depositors were paid 5 per cent, but, as the amount of deposits
since the War has risen greatly and exceeds the loans, the rate of
interest on deposits has been reduced to 3 per cent. Surplus
deposits have been lent to the agricultural society, or placed on
deposit with the Union at Zagreb. The following table shows
the amount of deposits, loans and profit for the years 1911 to
1919, inclusive:

Year

Deposits

Loans

Profits

1911

Crowns
270,208
304,221
375,847
393,745
519,989
725,532
845,722
1,019,338
1,393,815

Crowns

329,299

382,781

396,162

407,032

295,429

223,642

222,219

230,965

250,060

Crowns

1912.__

1913. _

4,250

1914. __

4,500

1915

3,300

1916.__

2,600

1917.

2,000

1918.

1919..._

6,870

From this table it can be seen that there has been a very remark-
able change in the proportion of deposits and loans.

The store society at Bukovec was founded in 1903 and was the
only store society of its kind belonging to the Croatian Union.
The membership was practically the same as the credit society,
namely, in 1914, 544; in 1918, 546, and in 1919, 547, so that its
membership has not been affected by the War. The premises
consisted of a small one-story building with a shop and a yard
behind, where there are stores, etc. The shop dealt in general
goods, such as coffee, candles, soap, hardware, and the stores in
grain, salt, agricultural machinery, etc. The society also dealt
in seeds. Besides selling goods to its members, the society buys
their grain and other farm produce. It is managed by a com-
mittee and manager, who estimated that about 70 per cent of the
produce of the members was bought by the society. The wheat

THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN JUGOSLAVIA

and maize are ground in the landlord*s mill and the flour sold to
members; the surplus used to be sold to Hungary, but since the
War has been sold to Triest. The Union at Zagreb is under-
taking the selling of products,' and hopes in time to sell all the
products of its member societies, but up to 1920 it had been able
to take only a small proportion. Eggs are sold by the society to
egg merchants. In 1919 more than a quarter of a million eggs
were packed and sold, but no attempt is made at numbering or
grading them. The society trades with non-members.

There is an ingenious system of dealing with the profits, though
one which is open to criticism, namely, instead of distributing
them on the Rochdale plan, 50 per cent of the profits are devoted
to increasing the value of the shares and 50 per cent to the re-
serve fund. The shares were originally valued at 10 crowns, and
the liability of the members was three times the value of the
share. By 1919 the shares had risen to 150 crowns, and the
liability had increased in proportion. There are obvious dis-
advantages in this arrangement, though it has the compensating
advantage that members who refuse to join the society in its early
days find when they wish to join that they must pay a penalty for
their lack of faith in the society. On the other hand, the liability
of members increases with the prosperity of the society, and bad
bookkeeping might lead to serious trouble. By 1920 the shares
were worth nearly 200 crowns, but the parish priest made a pro-
posal that the shares should be divided into two, and the members
permitted to sell one of their shares; this would mitigate some of
the disadvantages of the present system. The following figures
show the growth and the position of the society:

Year

Turnover

Share
capital

Value of
shares

Profits

Membert

1914.-

Crowns
398,929
619,733
585,083
746,065
1,292,332
4,170,179

Crowns
23,392

Crowns
43

Crowns
18,945

Crowns
544

IQI/i

35,360

37,834

544

1917

191ft

546

1919

82.0S0

150

198,307

547

CROATIA 27

The present position of the society is good. It has a share
capital of 82,050 crowns; reserves, 96,835; capital borrowed
from the local credit society, 206,990; fittings, etc., written down
to 500. It has 500 crowns' worth of shares in the Union and
1,500 in the agricultural bank from which the Union sprang, and
9,718 crowns of War loan.

Another society belonging to the Croatian Union is the Dairy
Society at Ricica, about 10 miles from Karlovac. This was a
credit society founded in 1911 with 38 members. It would be
merely wearisome to repeat long lists of membership and figures,
but by 1920 the society had 230 members, 139,600 crowns de-
posited with it and 118,400 crowns on loan. This credit society
started a cooperative dairy. It originally supplied whole milk to
Zagreb, where they set up a retail shop, but lately they sold all
their milk to the railway administration for the use of the em-
ployes. Any surplus milk was made into cheese. Before the
War the society made no butter, as Danish butter was cheaper in
Croatia than Croatian butter, but during the War butter was
scarce and so the society began butter-making. The Croatians
eat comparatively little butter. Of the 230 members, about 200
can supply milk from a total of about 600 cows. Only the even-
ing milk is sent to the society, as the members keep the morning
milk for their own use. The average daily supply was about
750 liters in 1920, but this was a decided falling off owing to a
bad outbreak of foot and mouth disease. In 1919 the average
receipts were about 2,000 liters. During the War about 300 cows
were requisitioned by the government. The society's premises
were very small, being only two rooms in what was the gate-lodge
of a country house, and had very little machinery. However, the
society is expanding rapidly, and has taken over the country
house of which it formerly occupied the gate-lodge and is turning
it into a well-equipped dairy and mill. There will be also a saw-
mill and a threshing plant all run by a 60-horsepower engine.

At Karlovac there is an agricultural society belonging to the
Union des Agriculteurs, This society, which was founded not
long before the War, was not able to do much until 1919, when
its membership was about 200. By 1920 its membership had
risen to 500 and its turnover to 5,000,000 crowns. Shares were

28 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN JUGOSLAVIA

100 crowns each and liability 500. The society supplies only
agricultural requirements to its members and does not sell on
their behalf. All members have to pay for their goods in ad-
vance, so there is not much need for capital. As Karlovac is an
important town on the railroad about 30 miles from Zagreb,
the societies there ought to flourish.

Another interesting form of society in Croatia is the cattle-
breeding society, of which the one at St. Ivan Zabno is a good
example. It was founded in 1907 as a result of the importing
of a number of pure-bred Simmenthal cattle in 1905 by the Croa-
tian Government. The society was organized by a notary in the
village, who persuaded some of the peasants to go to Baden to
see how cattle-breeding societies were run. The Croatian Gov-
ernment gave a grant to pay for the transport of cattle, and year
by year more cows were bought, each person who bought a pedi-
greed cow becoming a member of the society. By 1920 the
society had 400 members and 1,500 beasts. Each member had
to undertake to keep Simmenthal cattle only, and such was the
value of the pure-bred cattle that they were excluded from requisi-
tion during the War. Subscription to the society is 1 crown
per cow registered and 1 per cent of all sales of cattle. The
society keeps a register of cows born, a pedigree book and a sales
book. By a rigorous system of examination and exclusion tuber-
culosis has been reduced to 2 per cent among the registered cows.
Before the War an official was employed to test the quality of the
milk, but since the War this has been dropped, and the quantity
only has been registered by a number of controllers, each of whom
tests 20 cows and tests the yield once a month.

These examples of societies will serve to give the reader an
indication of the form of cooperation in Croatia.

The type of society in Croatia is becoming more varied and the
number of societies is steadily and rapidly increasing. The only
obstacle to success is the fact that the movement is split up into
three sections, each working independently. This is due to the
unfortunate history of the country, but now that it is free there
is a good chance of uniting all sections of the people into one
strong movement. The fact that the relations between the
three bodies are of a most friendly nature should make unity easy.

SLOVENIA 29

Slovenia

Slovene cooperation has its chief center at Ljubljana (Lai-
bach), though there is also a cooperative community at Celje
(Cille), which in 1918 had 109 credit societies, 28 agricultural
purchasing societies, 5 wine societies, 4 dairy societies and 1 mis-
cellaneous society. Ljubljana is the center of three cooperative
unions, of which the most important is the Zadruga Zveza, which
was founded in 1900. The Zadruga Zveza is, like the Croatian
unions, a very clerical body, and is largely controlled by the
priests (Roman Catholic). At the end of 1919 this union had
founded societies of which 25 were Raiffeisen credit societies, 40
Schulze-Delitzsch credit societies, 66 agricultural societies for the
sale of seeds and manures, 29 dairy societies, 39 cattle-breeding
societies, 25 machinery societies, 4 wine societies, 4 building
societies and 19 home-industry societies. The union had three
local federations. This is, however, an overestimate of the
strength of the union, as over 100 of the societies on the list of
membership are in territory which has been given to Italy and
therefore presumably will not be able to remain members of the
union. There are about 375 societies inside Jugoslav territory.
Cooperation among Slovenes is more varied in its nature than
among the Croats, partly because the Slovenes, being under Aus-
trian rule, had more opportunities for development. The stand-
ard of education and general civilization is slightly higher in
Slovenia than in Croatia, though Croatia will probably develop
rapidly now that it is free, and, further, Slovene cooperators do
not approve of having a single society which does credit, trading,
dairying, and so on.

On the whole, the societies in the Slovene union did not suffer
much during the War; the type of society which suffered most
was the dairy society, as 50 per cent of the cattle were requisi-
tioned for military purposes. There was also a shortage of food-
stuffs and labor. The three combined have had the result of
causing a great scarcity of milk, and as the price of milk rose,
butter-making ceased. There are plenty of calves, however, and
Slovene cooperators expect to have their dairy societies at work
again by 1922. The table on page 3 1 shows the general position

30 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN JUGOSLAVIA

of the union since 1900, from which its general position before,
during, and after the War may be gathered.

This union does not seem to have suffered from political perse-
cutions during the War, as did the unions at Zagreb. In 1920
it was spending rapidly and had taken part in setting up a factory
for making agricultural machinery, which was built in a barracks
which had constituted the headquarters of Bavarian troops dur-
ing the War. The union owns 35 per cent of the capital of the
factory, it has a fair-sized wholesale store, and it takes both grain
and produce from the members and sells them necessaries of
life, such as agricultural machinery, foodstuffs and cloth. This
union is not wholly agricultural, as there is a workers-consumers
society in Ljubljana with 12,000 members.

The second union at Ljubljana is the Zveza Slovenskih
Zadruga, which is an anti-clerical body run by national democrats.
This body claimed to be more patriotically Jugoslav than the
Zadruga Zveza, and maintained that the clerical party agreed to
support Austria until it saw that the Austrian Empire was certain
to break up. Whatever may be the merits and demerits of the
representative unions politically, the democratic union which was
founded in 1907 was much smaller than the other unions. It
was not so easy to obtain figures, as the director was away and the
books not available. The last published figures were for 1918,
which showed 117 societies, of which 70 were credit societies, 7
dairy societies, 20 consumers societies, 3 wine societies, 10 home-
industry societies, 2 building societies, and 5 miscellaneous socie-
ties. Of these, 44 are now in Italian territory. The societies
are chiefly formed of town workers; there arc only 9 definitely
agricultural societies, though the credit societies include some
peasant members. The majority of the societies are small and
include various forms of activity. In Ljubljana itself there are
8 societies belonging to the union, which are : ( I ) a porters
society, with 33 members; (2) a consumers society for employes,
with nearly 1,000 members; (3) an ordinary consumers society;
(4) a poultry society; (5) a sort of a club for propaganda and
literature, which is only registered as a cooperative society to
avoid legal difficulties; (6) a printers productive society; (7) a

SLOVENIA

C^l

■«*<

i/i

<v»

r~l

^-iOS.cv»OoovOOt^t^»«^'— 1

vOOr<-im'O^ONi'it^f^'Or->

<NJOOO^Tt<ON'*'^'-i^'-i<»

a;
Pi

^HU-ir^-HO0-*VOt^Tt<r-.r-<Vo"

•-irn-«t<0-*ioorsO'^CT\rr)VC)

-Hr-i-HcscM<N^r^r^

^•mO^r^0s00<^

^-*t^OOI^\Oroio

t>. 00 P^» Q <^ -^ '-^

■>*< Q On Q >J^ r^ OS
_ ui 0 "^ •^ <N On ro

«o

^ 0 Oc^ ■* U-> ^rl ^

vo"

I— 1 <M <N c<-> «N P^

lO f^ -^ 00 5*1 0\ m

On r>- — <

•^ -i*< t^ Tj< 00 t^ 00

^»

ly, 00 NO

4->

10 (vi ON -^ 10 ^ iri
VO I— 1 t^ Os fS 0 <N

"<**

— ' «^ rJ

r-i

t<-> tn ^

10 VO ^

^H 1-1 VO 00 00 VO T^

<»N IT) t^

-H -^tc vo ««-) ro •*

^OOOtO'-iO'^c«^VOO\I^OO-<t<^^t^r^ONM300— <

C m

s:.s

t^^OOvoONfSu^OsOsr'^.— 11— itoO\iovoosOOOT}<ON

Tr Ir*.

l^oot^t>.OooootriTi<r^^^t«-ivOO\r^Tht^l^roi^

Ttlf^ON^^^t^t^t^OOOOOl/ltNO-'tlw-its^OsON

OO 4J

.ti"§

-u «

K o

.—1 Of^'*ooO<^-*t^*Ot-»ooooOOi— •■<*i'*

u *-

^OT^lo^OO^O^^^^^^^^r^^^^^^-^r^^>.^r^oo'^-^

• 0>-^Q'-<i^'<30NCT\vOOO\OOOOI^Tf<0>J^Oor^rt<

e 2

^■5

c^00O»O"*CNV0V00\QOV0— iTj<t>^cs»^-<*<vooo

.rr,,-lu^000000\0O'*iO^'-HO0st^'*t>.\000V0

^-HvoOOO»--roo<v)pi^\000»-HVo"vOLOoot^io~tvrrrrr^

0 .ti

ly-lf^t^lnlOCTsOIOOOOi— iVOOf^^"— 'Or^VOfNOO

D.-0

»-l OrO-'fiOS'-i'— itNOO.— c.-HlOTt<»-^r-ir-»cS-*

4J 4J

C»^Tj<tO^ON»-<»Or^lf'^lO»'llOTf<(V<'^'-H

,_|^H.— I^Hi— l^^.-H<N»Oli-)i— IP^

-^ — <

•oor^oovor-ioo'«ti-«*<fSfvivOvorvicv)OooOooO'>*'

^>.oo^nc^^o^oo'0^|^^~1— irriu^<^Ttiurioo\0-*Of^

w>\0'*t^C7\-*CT\t^CN0NV0t^Oio— <--r^O\OON

wriO\r-O'*<~^c<^V0mO\»-<i^t^Tj<Tj<-^{N00O00

^^O^t*^"^^t^^^"^00■*(N•'r^^1*<^<-)0^oO\0

u-it^oor^vOrvic<^rvif<->u-)VOfMOsooo\a\pnvo'Lo"-*^
<N«NcorJ<uoO\0-HOO\VOt^ior>-0\pqON

1-H1— (»-H »— 'COmU^SO

» i 1 i 1 ; j j i j 1 ; 1 j j 1 j 1 i i 1

t^OQvOoovOVOQOO-^QOOOQQOOo
.0\0'*Tj<ONt*iOI^Oootooo<-iTt<PocSrou-)Voii

S>< ^oovo■^O^^oC^-^o^oo^c^r^"ooooovo■<tlo\o'
iriVOt^00O\<— iioO\r<^oo<NVOO\ONQ— <VO\OVOVO

u u 0 u

<^-*vO'*-*i>^'— ipoVOfnOOP^oor^i— it<-)U-ivor4(vj

_«

tvi.-^ioOsr^«oOTt<Mi-H-*Q-^^Oooo\ooooi/^vOOs

— •« *. •k

'^ ""* '^ *^

^ «s 0 «

O-^r^m'+iK->v0^-PP0vO'-ir<m-«tiiov0t>~00O

I— (

1-^

w Si

C "

.2 >.

P O
'^ ct

4-> "^

> J2

0 rt

Ti 3

^."H

-0 >

c •-■

^ "2

j: e

u u

W 4,

^ &

.2 c

*-> 0

rt • =

<^ «.

U M

.*i J3

X s

„ a

-s

Si -5

r-1 60

C ^

►^0

■0 0

THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN JUGOSLAVIA

schoolmasters society for getting theses, etc., printed; and (8) a
bootmakers society for purchasing leather.

The democratic union was regarded with suspicion by the Aus-
trian authorities during the War, and, as the societies were all
formed, like the societies in Croatia, with the object of opposing
the Austrian Government as well as performing their economic
functions, this is not surprising. The Austrian Government en-
deavored to centralize all cooperation at Vienna, and administer
the cooperative societies throughout Austria and her dependen-
cies from there.

The following figures show the development of the union :

Year

No. of societies

Shares held
(10 crowns each)

Total credit and
other dealings

1909-
191 1_
1913_
1914-
1915-
1916l-

160
136
126
123
118
117
117

8,039
8,906
8,426
8,091
7,576
7,565
7,141
7,050

Croums

22,224,640

5,831,536

15,399,924

4,664,568

5,030,253

7,857,774

10,826,719

17,093,338

There is a third union at Ljubljana, which is non-agricultural
and is socialistic in tendency; it is called Pravila Nakupovalne
Zadruga. This union has consumers societies all over Slovenia.
The societies all consist of members of the People's Party of Slo-
venia or of the Jugoslav Socialist Party. The total membership
is 220,000, of which 150,000 are active members. The societies
sell all kinds of goods. Within the first five months of 1920
it had sold goods to the value of a hundred million crowns; it
had proposed to set up a mill and bacon factory. Although com-
posed of members of socialist tendencies the society does not take
part in politics, and a curious feature of it is that the owners of
big works who set up shops for supplying their workers are able
to become members of this union. The union has 13 centrals
which are divided up into about 80 consumers societies. The
members are nearly all workers in factories, and very few peas-

DALMATIA 33

ants belong to it. It can not be regarded as purely cooperative,
since a number of the societies seem to be practically the property
of the owners of big factories. This union was founded in 1919,
so that all the information obtained about it was tentative, and it
is difficult to come to any definite conclusion as to its functions or
prospects.

Dalmatia

The Dalmatian Coast has two cooperative unions, one at Split
(Spalato) and the other at Dubrovniku (Ragusa). The lat-
ter was the smaller of the two, and in 1914 it had a total of only
58 societies, of which 51 were credit societies, 2 machinery, 3
fishing and 2 subunions. The first union is considerably bigger,
with a total of 296 societies in 1914, which had fallen to 256 by
1920, and of these 122 were in territory occupied by the Italians.
However, by the Treaty of Rapallo the greater part of this ter-
ritory was handed over to Jugoslavia. Of the 256 societies, 182
were credit, 29 consumers, 14 fishing, 11 oil-making, 1 beekeep-
ing, 2 wine, 1 mill, 1 assurance, 2 publishing, 1 shipbuilding, 2 per-
fume, 3 stonecutters, and 7 miscellaneous, which include 2 for
owning ships. It was difficult to get any accurate information
about the societies in this union, as communication was exceed-
ingly difficult in Dalmatia in 1920. The accounts of the union
were also not to be had.^

The usual change in credit societies from lending more than
was deposited with them to having larger deposits than loans
was noticeable in Dalmatia also. A description of three typical
societies at Bol in the Island of Bracu will serve to show some-
thing of cooperation on the Dalmatian Coast.

The first of these was a credit society which was founded in
1911. All information before and during the War has been lost,
but the secretary said that before the War the society had been

* Split was the only place in Jugoslavia where I found any difficulty in obtaining
information. A state of extreme political tension as between Jugoslavs and
Italians existed ; the former state that were it not for the presence of American war-
ships in the harbor they would be completely at the mercy of the latter. In the
islands off the coast political tension was, if anything, greater, and the old saying,
"Austrian rule is European, Hungarian rule is Asiatic," is completed by the
phrase "Italian rule is Hottentot." To an Irishman visiting the country, the ac-
counts of Italian atrocities did not sound very bad.

THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN JUGOSLAVIA

bigger than in 1919, when it had 120 members. The demand for
loans had fallen off considerably, so that only 80,000 crowns were
lent during that year, while deposits reached 600,000 crowns.
The society had only about 50 members at its inception. It has
undertaken a certain amount of store business — selling food-
stuffs— since the War, and may gradually develop into a store
society. This, the reader will have noticed, tends to be a com-
mon feature among all the credit societies of Jugoslavia.

The fishing society, which has 44 members, includes nearly all
the fishermen in Bol. The fishing is for sardines and mackerel.
The former are caught at night; they are attracted to the boats
by big acetylene lamps and then caught in nets. The boats are
all small and are manned by three or four men, one of whom is a
skipper. If the fishermen are in need of money they can get pay-
ments on account of fish brought in, and the balance is paid to them
at the end of the season. The mackerel are salted and exported
to the United States. The following figures show the progress
made by the society :

Year

No. of
members

Share
capital

Turnover

Profits

IQn

33
32
44

Crowns
3,280
3,780
4,060

Crowns

Crowns
2,939

191^

445,636

3,816

IQIO

63,336

The wine society, which is the biggest on the Island, was
founded in 1903. The Island is partly farmed by large owners
and partly by small tenants who hold on the Mezzadria system.
The land question on the Island is acute, and, as a result of a land
campaign, the proportion of products taken by the landowners
from the tenants has been reduced. The members of the wine
society are chiefly big landowners, as the small tenants distrusted
the society and would not join. This distrust was largely created
by the local wine buyers. This society, which had started with a
membership of 53, had risen to 91 in 1908, in which year there
was a very serious crisis in the wine trade. This crisis was fol-

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 35

lowed by the War, so that by 1915-16 membership had fallen
to 44; by 1920 it had risen again to 53. The share capital at the
founding of the society was only 15,700 crowns; in 1916 it
increased to 16,000; the reserves which had reached 13,000 in
1904 had entirely disappeared by 1914. In 1915 the society
began to revive in spite of the War. In that year the reserves
rose to 17,200 crowns; by 1916 they had risen to 50,000; by 1917,
to 300,000, and by 1919 they had over half a million. But this
latter figure should be divided by 10 if it is to be compared with
prewar figures. Share capital in 1919 was 26,500. A new crisis
rose in 1919, as phylloxera attacked the grapes. American vines
have been introduced to meet this. The society pays a portion
of the price of the grapes to the members as soon as they are de-
livered and the balance if the wine is sold. The society always
supplied sprays and spraying machines to members, but during the
War it also took to supplying grain, fats, oil and sugar, and it
continued to deal in these articles. There was a very great de-
mand for wine during the War, as a result of which the stocks of
the society were depleted. The wine made from the American
grape is not liked as much as wine from the native grape. This
may be to some extent because the American grape is new, and
they have not yet found the best means of treating and blending
wine made therefrom. The amount of wine made rose from
985 hectoliters in 1903 to 2,840 in 1913. This high production
was maintained until 1916, but in 1918 it had fallen to 1467, and
phylloxera in 1919 reduced it further to 537 — the lowest figure
since the society was founded.

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Montenegro was difficult of access in 1920, nor was there-
sufficient indication of there being organized cooperation there to
justify a visit, but Bosnia and Herzegovina have an active and
extended cooperative movement among the Christian inhabitants.
The general problems in these two provinces, which formed one
administrative whole, are, owing to historical causes, somewhat
different from those in the rest of Jugoslavia. These provinces
were under Turkish rule until 1878, when they were handed over

36 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN JUGOSLAVIA

to the Austro-Hungarian Government for administration, and
were finally annexed by Austria-Hungary in 1908. The popula-
tion is 90 per cent agricultural, and the only big town is Sarajevo,
with from 50,000 to 60,000 population. Under Turkish rule
there was considerable oppression, which was carried on on lines
similar to the Penal Code in Ireland. Any Christian becoming
a Mohammedan was entitled to hold land, but Christians who
stood by their religion were reduced to the position of serfs. As
a result of this a large number of the Christian Croats and Serbs
embraced Mohammedanism, so that in 1912 out of a population
of 1,962,200, 626,649 were Mohammedans, almost entirely
descendants of renegade Christians, as the number of actual
Turks in the country was very small. As is natural, the rene-
gades were detested by the Christians, but up to the War all the
land belonged to them, and up to the annexation by the Austro-
Hungarian Government the Christian peasants were literally
serfs. It is certain that the Mohammedans will be deprived of
nearly all their land, and the burning question in 1920 was
whether they should get compensation or not. If the matter
were left in the hands of the local government of the provinces
there is very little likelihood that the Mohammedans would re-
ceive any compensation, but the government at Belgrade may be
unwilling to create a precedent of this nature. Of the Chris-
tians, about two thirds are Serbian Orthodox and one third
Roman Catholic. There is no cooperative movement among the
Mohammedans, who are chiefly traders when they are not land-
owners, who may cultivate a small portion of their land and sub-
let the rest. There are some signs of the Mohammedans form-
ing cooperative societies, but there is little or no chance of their
being admitted to Christian societies for some time to come. If
they are reduced to poverty they will probably be driven to some
form of cooperation. As in Croatia, each of the Christian
churches has its own cooperative movement, which division was
encouraged by the Austro-Hungarlan Government In Bosnia as
elsewhere.

The Serbian movement is the strongest and oldest of the two.
By 1912 the Serbian movement had 98 societies belonging to it.

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 37

The movement is much controlled by the priests, but there is a
desire to get the movement into lay hands, and for this reason
efforts are being made to train lay managers or secretaries. Of
the 98 societies in 1912, only 75 furnished returns, which showed
2,553 members, or an average of 34 per society.

For political reasons, as in Croatia, the Serbs deliberately kept
their societies small, and regarded 90 as the largest number per-
missible in one society. Of the 2,553 members, 2,409 were farm-
ers and the remainder small shopkeepers who usually also have
small farms, priests, teachers, artisans and government employes.
The capital of the society was 31,226 crowns, and the loans made
485,434. Below is a rough balance sheet for the year 1912 and
a list of purposes for which loans were made, which gives a gen-
eral idea of the nature of their activities. By January, 1914, the
number of societies had risen to 106 and the members to 3,295.
On the outbreak of war the Austro-Hungarian Government prac-
tically suppressed the Serbian union at Sarajevo and practically
liquidated it. But the societies continued to work, though in a
somewhat restricted way, and membership fell, so that by Decem-
ber, 1919, when it was possible to begin work again, there were
only 2,958 members. In 1919 there was a great revival; the
union was put on its feet again, and about 150 new societies
formed, but the dislocation caused by the closing down and the
difficulties of communication, etc., owing to dislocated railway
service and general disorganization, made it difficult to get full
information about the work in progress.

In 1912 the capital of the societies was 31,226 crowns, and the
loans made by societies to their members 458,434 crowns, for
the following purposes :

Croiuns

Purchase of cattle 79,478

Purchase of land 90,679

Machinery and implements 17,239

Rent of land 4,086

Buildings 38,306

Cultivation of land 5,584

Sulphate of copper 933

Food and seeds 74,463

Cattle food 9,248

Payment of debts 56,152

Taxes 9,609

Medical service and medicine 170

THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN JUGOSLAVIA

The position of the societies as a whole on December 31, 1912,
was as follows : *

Debit

Owing to the UiUoo and other

bank*

Depoeitt of members

Share* _ , ,-

Rewrre
Balance

Total

Crewai

S96,497

111.417

S 1.778

9.840

5,844

Credit

Cr0vms

Cath in hand 31,226

Loan* (at above) 458,434

Grain held by todetiet 10,146

Stocks in hand 6,825

Establishment charge* (repay-

able in 5 years) „ 2,448

Real property „ 20,380

Implements - 5,915

Shares held by sodetie* in the

Union 20,000

555,376

Total 555,374

During the year 1912 the income and expenditures of the socie-
ties were as follows :

Income

Crovms

Shares 33,923

Reserve 9,840

Borrowed from Union and bank* 516,952

Deposits 183,747

Loans repaid 205,937

Equipment 328

Establishment expense* 6,629

Interest on loans 41,782

Real property „ 4,287

Agricultural implements 5,147

Shares in Union „

Interest on share capital

Cash in hand „ 6,510

Rent, etc 26,126

Expenditures

Repaid on loans from Union

banks

Deposits withdrawn

Loans made.

Equipment

Establishment expenses „.

Interest on loans

Real property

Agricultural implements.
Shares in Union

and

Cash in hand

Rent „....

Crovms
2,145

120,454

72,329

664,372

7,154

9,078

23,789

24,668

11,062

20,000

4,927

13,732

31,226

36,272

Total 1,041,208 Total 1,041,208

On December 31, 1918, the position of the societies, which
numbered 106, was as follows:

Debit

Share capital.

Due to Union and bankt„

Deposits of members

Savings (withdrawable

5 years)

Reserve ,,

Balance

Credit

Crov;ni Crowns

30,602 Cash in hand 90,568

278,430 Loans to members 478,120

251,040 Bonds and scrip 33,631

after Deposits in Union and bank* 71,547

76,446 Grain 1,054

28,289 Fittings, etc 11,732

34,445 Establishment expenses 419

Real property - „ 10,056

Agricultural implements 2,123

Tout

699,252 Total

699,250

'The apparent inaccuracy of addition is due to the fact that hellers have been
omitted in all the following tables.

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA 39

The position of the Union in 1913 was as follows:

Debit Credit

■ Croivns Crowns

Share capital 30,900 Cash in hand 459

Creditors' current account 371,475 Cash on current account in bank 401,676

Owing to Central Bank 468,000 Security 468,000

Reserve 1,545 Printing works 5,884

Balance 5,275 Fittings 1,175

Total 877,195 Total 877,194

The position of the Union in 1919 was as follows :

Debit Credit

Crowns Croivns

Share capital 35,300 Cash in hand 23,135

Creditors 221,359 Loans 439,762

Owing to bank 659,100 Securities 468,000

Reserve 203,276 Goods 8,100

Balance 11,060 Sundries"

Total 1,130,195 Total 1,130,195

" This item could not be verified and has therefore been left blank.

Up to May 29, 1920, the dealings of the Union were as fol-
lows:

Debit Credit

Croivns Croivns

Share capital 35,200 Cash in hand 790,832

Creditors 1,683,722 Loans 205,370

Owing to bank (security de- Bonds and scrip 20,000

posits) 663,956 Securities 663,950

Reserve 203,186 Goods 1,156,688

Balance 254,291 Agricultural inaplements 3,510

Total 2,840,357 Total 2,840,357

The Croat union in Sarajevo really began its work in 1904,
when the first society was formed. It developed slowly and by
1908 there were only 5 societies. By 1914 the total had risen to
64, all of which were Raiffeisen credit societies, but which did a
general business in buying and selling. Their union began with
the cooperative bank, which was founded in 1910 with a capital
of 2,000,000 crowns, but this was found to be too small to be of
much use, and in 1915 they started doing their financial work
through the Croat Agricultural Bank at Zagreb. The number
of societies remained unaltered during the War. The total mem-
bership reached 9,391. The Croats did not make particular
efforts to keep their societies small; they varied in size from 14

40 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN JUGOSLAVIA

members to 746, which was the largest. In November, 1919,
they decided to form a regular union of Croat cooperative socie-
ties in Bosnia, and by June, 1920, great strides had been made —
a new union with 86 societies and 1,500 members was formed.
It was not possible to procure figures for the War years, but on
December 31, 1913, 59 societies furnished returns, which showed
a total of 1,789,739 crowns lent and 1,285,022 crowns on deposit.
During the War the societies were very delinquent about furnish-
ing returns, as the work of the societies was practically confined to
collecting their debts. Deposits, however, were flowing in, and
by 1919 had risen to about 5,000,000 crowns. The amount out
on loan was not ascertainable, but it is said to be very small. The
share capital reached about a quarter of a million. This is an-
other example of the alteration in the position of the farmer
caused by the War.

Both the Croat and the Serbian unions did good business for
their members in selling their crops cooperatively. Before co-
operation was introduced, peasants used to sell their crops stand-
ing in the fields to corn merchants, who could give practically any
price they chose. The cooperative method is that each peasant
reports the quantity of grain in his barn to his society. The
society watches the markets and waits for a suitable opportunity
of selling. Meanwhile, if the peasant wants money he can bor-
row it on the security of his grain at 5 per cent and the society
repays itself when it sells the corn. The unions are trying to
organize the grain-selling on a big scale, but they find this dif-
ficult, as the local societies like selling it themselves, and are
pleased, just as some of the creamery societies in Ireland are
pleased, if they can sell at a slightly higher price than their
neighbors, though they would probably get better prices by selling
as one unit. There are very few cooperative stores in Bosnia,
though the credit societies do a certain amount of store business.

The heads of the cooperative movement are anxious to unite
the Serb and Croat unions. The chief obstacle is that both unions
arc somewhat clerical in nature, and the priests of the respective
churches, who have done admirable work for cooperation in Jugo-
slavia, are in many cases secretaries of the societies. Education

INDUSTRIAL COOPERATIVES IN JUGOSLAVIA 41

is not widespread, and there is difficulty in obtaining trained lay
managers. Although the fact that the priests have a large
measure of control in the two unions has doubtless had consid-
erable effect in helping them to overcome their early difficulties
and has provided them with a stabilizing and educative element
to guide them, it is felt that it will be difficult to secure complete
unity of purpose between the two groups until there is a larger
lay element in both unions, and classes are being formed for
training managers. Once the peasants can be brought to see the
full advantages of the cooperative system, there ought to be a big
future for Bosnian cooperation, as the peasants have large sums
of money which they keep in their houses because they do not
yet appreciate the advantages of banking. As a result of this
system of hoarding money, many of them lost large sums of
money at the conclusion of the War, because on the conversion of
the currency from Austrian to Jugoslavian many of the more igno-
rant peasants failed to realize the necessity of getting their money
stamped with the Jugoslav stamp. The new national spirit, which
tends to abolish the old standing differences between Serb and
Croat, Roman Catholic and other Christian bodies, should help
to strengthen the cooperative movement throughout Bosnia and
to improve the general conditions of the country.

Industrial Cooperatives in Jugoslavia and General

Conclusions

This report has dealt so far entirely with agricultural coopera-
tion, as industrial cooperation in Jugoslavia is a very small and
unimportant movement. There are, however, some signs that
the cooperative movement in its industrial distributive form will
develop, though for many years to come it is unlikely that it will
compare in importance with the agricultural movement. The
signs of the existence of an industrial movement are chiefly to be
noticed in Zagreb and Ljubljana. In Zagreb there are two con-
sumers societies, the first of which is a socialistic society founded
in 1910. This society is run on what may be described as purely
Rochdale lines. It differs from the ordinary English consumers
society in that it is directly socialistic in tendency, and it regards

THE CXX)PERATIVE MOVEMENT IN JUGOSLAVIA

the agricultural societies as purely capitalistic bodies, and their
movement as part of the "junker politik." The society aims at
controlling production, but, so far, has succeeded only in estab-
lishing a small boot factory which employs about 30 workers.
This factory was opened about the beginning of 1920. The
society has 30 branches, some of which are in country districts,
but it does no agricultural business. It has a considerable con-
nection with the trade-unions of Croatia, though it is not officially
united with them, but the leaders of the trade-unions take an
interest in the society and in some cases the trade-union leaders
are members of the committee of the cooperative society. The
society had only 160 members before the War and by 1916 this
number had fallen to 64. In 1917 the society began to make
progress, which was probably due to the pressure of the War,
which made combination to buy cheaply more important than in
prewar days. In 1917 it had 763 members, and in 1918, 3,219,
in 1919 it rose rapidly to 12,957, and in 1920 it had about 16,000
members. The share capital, which in 1911 was 4,300 crowns,
had fallen to 2,400 in 1916, and by 1919 had risen to 669,000.
The sales and gross profits for the period 1914 to 1919 were as
follows :

Yeai

Sales

Gross profits

1914-
1916..
1917_
I918«
1919_

Crowns

54,000

42,000

182,000

976,000

10,120,000

Crowns

4,900

8,900

29,000

130,000

1,308,000

The net profits were 7,738 crowns in 1911; then followed four
years of loss. In 1916 a net profit of 1,418 crowns was made,
and in 1919 a profit of 535,000 crowns, which, even allowing for
the decrease in the value of money, meant an enormous improve-
ment. The society does not take an active part in politics, but
all its members are Socialists.

There is also in Zagreb a consumers society for employes
(government, railway, etc.). It was founded in 1919, but did

CONCLUSION 43

not begin work until February, 1920, when it had 8,000 mem-
bers. It had already a large warehouse for goods which was
well stocked and had bought foodstuffs to the value of 20,000,000
crowns. The shares were 200 crowns each. Seven millions
were lent by the government. It is impossible to give any details
as to the working of this society, as it had only begun to work.

The third union described in the part of this report which
deals with Slovenia, the Pravila Nakupovalne Zadruga, may
also be considered as to some extent part of the industrial con-
sumers movement. There are traces of consumers societies
started by the Socialist parties in Sarajevo and Belgrade, but so
far they are not of importance, though they may possibly grow.

Conclusion

The cooperative movement in Jugoslavia as a whole, that is to
say, the agricultural cooperative movement, is changed from a
movement whose chief object was to preserve Slav independence
to a purely economic movement for the uplifting of the South
Slav race. As has been mentioned from time to time in this
report, there are signs that an attempt is being made to unite
Serb and Croat societies in the different centers. Besides this,
there is a big movement to unite the whole agricultural coopera-
tive organization of Jugoslavia into one big union which is
called the Union of Unions. This movement started in 1919,
when a congress was held at which it was decided that the Union
of Unions should be founded. The second congress was held on
June 11, 1920, at Zagreb, at which 12 unions were represented,
namely, 3 at Zagreb, 2 at Ljubljana, 1 at Celje, 1 at Split, 1 at
Dubrovnik (Ragusa), 2 at Sarajevo, 1 at Osijek and 1 at Bel-
grade. A three days' session was held, and it is hoped that the
Union of Unions will in time become a center of credit, purchase
and organization for the existing unions, but up to the present it is
only a body with advisory and moral powers. There seems to be
considerable enthusiasm for the Union of Unions and there is
every prospect that it will become a very powerful body for the
advancement of cooperation in Jugoslavia. The details of the
organization remain to be worked out, but where the desire is
strong the achievement can not be long delayed. A stranger vis-

44 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN JUGOSLAVIA

iting Jugoslavia can not fail to be impressed with the strong
national feeling which the new state has called into life. This
manifests itself also in the cooperative movement, and the Union
of Unions must be regarded as one of its results. At present, its
headquarters are in Belgrade, and its secretary. Dr. Prohaska, an
authority on land reform in Jugoslavia, was most kind and helpful
to the author. It is impossible to say more about the Union of
Unions now, but cooperators in other countries should keep their
eyes on it if they wish to follow the fortunes of Jugoslav
cooperation.

PART II

THE EFFECTS OF THE WAR ON COOPERATION IN
RUMANIA

People's Banks, Agricultural Conditions and the War

The cooperative movement in Rumania began with the foun-
dation of the Bancilor Populare, or People's Banks, which were
first started in the year 1891. The causes which led to the
movement for People's Banks were similar in Rumania to most
other countries ; the peasants were absolutely in the hands of the
local money-lenders and merchants, and on occasions even the
local landlords allowed themselves to take advantage of the
ignorance and poverty of the peasants, and acted as money-
lenders. A few village school-teachers were responsible for the
founding of the first People's Banks, which rapidly increased in
number until, in 1896, they held a congress, which so impressed
the governmental and landowning classes that, partly to support
a good movement and partly to prevent the People's Banks from
becoming the center of a political party, the government listened
favorably to an appeal for help from the Banks, which found it
difficult to get money from the ordinary commercial banks. As a
result, the Central for the People's Banks was founded in 1903.

The People's Banks had spread very rapidly, and by 1903
there were no less than 1,027 of them. They not only acted as
credit societies, but also as agricultural societies for the sale of
manures, etc., and also implement societies. By degrees separate
societies were formed for distinct types of work, but in many
cases the Bancilor Populare still act as "general purposes" socie-
ties, but only where the work outside of credit is small. In 1913
there were :

No. Members

Credit societies „ 2,901 584,632

Productive societies (including machinery, dairy, etc., societies).... 23 1,601

Societies for production and sale 211 11,597

Agricultural (consumers) societies 271 12,340

Societies for hiring land (1912) 364

46 THE CXX)PERATIVE MOVEMENT IN RUMANIA

All these societies were under the control and supervision of
the Central for the People's Banks, which was a department of
the government, the directors of which were nominated by the
Ministry of Finance and which had a governmental grant of
20,000,000 Ui, or £800,000. The Central also acted as a cen-
tral bank for the People's Banks, and had a staff of organizers
and supervisors as well as accountants, etc.

The People's Banks were originally founded under the com-
mercial law of Rumania. They could accept members from any
part of the country, and the state, through the Central, had only
the right of inspecting their accounts. In fact each Bank con-
fined itself to a small district. This type of bank has gradually
declined in numbers until in 1918 there were only 277. They are
unlimited in the amount of interest they can charge on loans.
The constitution of a People's Bank is that each member agrees
to undertake a certain liability which may not be less than 20 or
more than 5,000 lei. He then pays down 10 per cent of the sum,
and pays the remainder in instalments carried over two years.
The profits of the Bank are distributed as dividends on the capi-
tal, not on the turnover.

When the government established the Central a second type of
society came into existence. In this type the Central has a direct
voice in the framing of the rules, and fixes a limit as to the district
from which members may be drawn, and also limits the rate of
interest which may be charged for loans, usually to 1 per cent
over the rate at which the Central lends. Many of the first type
of banks submitted themselves to the control of the Central,
adopted its rules, and thus became of the second type of society,
which in 1918 numbered 2,643.

The Central is now engaged in forming a third type of bank,
with unlimited liability and no paid-up capital. This type has
so far only been established in villages where there are a number
of peasant proprietors, and in 1918 there were only 46 such
banks. They are not making much progress so far, but the Cen-
tral hopes to encourage them.

The People's Banks, as already mentioned, do all kinds of co-
operative work, but especially selling grain in common for their

people's banks and agricultural conditions 47

members. The chief crops in Rumania are wheat and maize,
though there is also a quantity of tobacco, sugar beet, oats, etc.,
grown. In the year before the war they first organized the
export of cereals. The Banks may act in two ways. ( 1 ) Buy
the grain at a fixed price and store it, and then sell at the best
price they can get, and pay the difference between the price
at which they bought and the price at which they sold, less a
commission, to the farmers from whom they bought. (2) A
more common way is for a Bank to get its members to report
to it how much grain they have for sale. The Bank then looks
out for a market, and sells the grain, which is kept in the
peasant's own store until sold. In this case, if the peasant
wants ready money the Bank will lend to him on the security of
his grain.

The sale of seeds and manures to members is also an important
part of their work, and further, they sell such articles as cloth,
soap, coffee, etc. In both their buying and selling operations the
district federations of the People's Banks play an important part,
as they act as local centrals and wholesale societies. They buy
grain from the local banks in the same way that the Banks buy
from their members, i. e., sometimes they store it themselves,
sometimes they leave the grain with the local societies.

The actual money-lending operations of the Banks are much
the same as in a Raiffeisen Bank. Money is lent for productive
purposes, which purposes must be stated by the borrower. The
borrowing member is not, however, necessarily a peasant ; he may
be a small artisan, such as the village cobbler or smith.

The loans are not necessarily, as in a Raiffeisen Bank, on per-
sonal or "character" security only, but are often made on the
security of a house, a cow, a cart, etc. These points will be
more clearly illustrated in the account of the cooperative societies
at Oltenitza, which comes later in this report.

The second form of cooperative society which has grown out
of the People's Banks is what we should call the ordinary type of
agricultural cooperative society, such as societies for the purchase
of seeds and manures, for the selling of goods in common, dairy
societies and fishing societies; but there are also a number of

48 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN RUMANIA

societies for the exploitation of forests, which are organized on a
different basis and are probably peculiar to Rumania.

The third and most interesting form of cooperation in Ru-
mania is to be found in the societies for hiring land. In Rumania
the land was owned largely by great proprietors, some of whom
owned very large estates. It was not unusual for a proprietor to
let his land to a farmer to work; that is, to a capitalist who paid
him a rent for the right to work his land and who supplied all
the machinery, animals, etc., necessary for the work and profit
of the land. These farmers were very rich men, and in some
cases took the farming of many estates; one man had the farming
of half a province. In 1900 some of the peasants, who saw great
profits being made by the farmers, thought that by forming co-
operative societies for hiring land they could make these profits
for themselves, and accordingly they formed societies. Before
the War no less than 605 of these societies had been formed.
They were brought under state control in 1904.

These societies are, by their very nature, limited in member-
ship, as, unlike the Italian communal farming societies, they do
not work the land in common, but divide it among the members.
A certain piece of land is to be hired — say, 1,000 hectares. A
number of peasants come together, and one man says, "I can
work five hectares"; the next says, "I can work two and a half
hectares"; and so on, depending on the capacity of the man, his
capital, etc. Then, when they have enough members to take up
the 1,000 hectares, they refuse to accept more. The land is then
hired on a lease, usually for five years, and the society is formed
for the duration of the lease. No new member can join unless
an old member falls out. The society divides the land according
to the arrangement already arrived at, but not, as might be sup-
posed, by giving one man five hectares in one place and his
neighbor two and a half, for the whole land is divided into areas,
on one of which it is decided to plant wheat, on the next maize,
and so forth. A common rotation of crops is simply wheat one
year, maize two years, and then wheat again. Each area is then
divided, and each man gets a part of each area, in which he must

people's banks and agricultural conditions 49

plant the crop decided upon for that area. In this way it can be
seen that there is a certain amount of working in common of the
land, especially as the society owns or hires machinery. In prin-
ciple a man may plant what he likes on his plots, but in practice
he always plants the crop assigned to the particular area in which
each plot lies. Each man, however, cultivates his own plot as
an individual, and gets the product of his own plot. The crop is
all brought to a central place for threshing, etc. Each man
makes his own rick and, when the threshing machine comes, gets
his own wheat threshed. The whole arrangement is somewhat
like the old open field system which was common throughout
Europe in the Middle Ages.

Since the War there has been a great change in the land system
of Rumania. The government has confiscated 2,000,000 hec-
tares, which it is going to divide among the peasants. The land
is being given free to the peasants, and the owners compensated
by government paper. As the bulk of the population are farm-
ers, the real compensation will come out of taxes paid largely by
them. It has further been enacted that no individual may own
more than 500 hectares of land. As a result of this very drastic
law a great many societies have been brought to an end, and only
about 160 societies remain, in place of the 605. This change has
been accompanied by a new form of society, which, though not,
properly speaking, cooperative, is interesting as a sign of the
influence which the cooperative tenancy societies had gained.
Since the state has taken over 2,000,000 hectares, it is obvious
that the work of dividing it up and satisfying individual claims
will take years to complete, especially as the state is continuing
the system of giving each man several lots. The land question
in Rumania is very urgent and is the chief political question of
the day. What with the presence of the Bolshevik forces on the
northern frontier and the example of Kerensky's land reform
in Bessarabia, now part of the Rumanian state, it is felt on all
sides that it is necessary, in the interests of stable government, to
satisfy the demands of the peasants without delay. Therefore,
the land which has been confiscated is handed over to them at

50 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN RUMANIA

once; but then comes the matter of its division. Here the state
has adopted the system of the cooperative societies. Each group
of peasants which is to be given confiscated land is compelled to
form a cooperative society to divide and work the land tempo-
rarily until the state is able to make a permanent division. The
word "cooperative" is quoted because ( 1 ) these societies are
not voluntary associations, but compulsory ones; (2) they are not
free to choose their own committee and officers, but have a man-
ager appointed and paid by the state. Even in the case of the
old tenancy societies the state sometimes has the power to inter-
fere in the appointment of the manager, but only when the society
has borrowed money from the Central. This temporary form
of society does not, as a rule, own machinery, etc.; it can act as a
selling agent for the crops, but seldom does so. There are now
over 2,000 of these temporary societies, and the Central hopes
to turn them into permanent societies, not for landholding, since
that question is, for the time being, settled, but for ordinary agri-
cultural productive purposes. It is likely that there will be a big
development of cooperation as a result of this.

There has been some opposition on the part of the peasants to
the formation of these semi-cooperative farming societies, as the
desire for ownership is so strong that anything which seems to
put off the day of actual possession is unpopular. There have
even been cases where the peasants were distrustful of the good
faith of the government and actually approached their old land-
lords and offered to buy the land directly. This was, of course,
impossible, as the land was already confiscated by the govern-
ment. Land reform in Rumania has been partly the result of
panic legislation, and the formation of the temporary cooperative
societies was largely a means of getting out of the difficulties
caused by passing an act without thinking out the means by which
it was to be put into force. The attitude of the average Ruma-
nian toward his government did not show that confidence in its
integrity and efficiency which is to be desired, but in the case of the
land confiscation there did not seem to be anything to justify this
attitude of distrust. The landlords are satisfied with the amount

people's banks and agricultural conditions 51

of compensation given, but some of them would prefer payment
in some more solid form than government paper.

It has been stated that a result of the change of ownership was
a decrease in the average produce of the land, but time will prove
this true or false.

During the War the German-Austrian invasion did not inter-
fere much with the working of the societies. The invaders seem
generally to have done their best to preserve the economic life of
the country. Here is a marked distinction between the invasion
of Serbia and the invasion of Rumania, as in Serbia the whole
structure of the cooperative movement was brought to the ground,
and when one of the societies, such as the wine society at Selo-
Banja, was worked by the Austrians it meant only that the actual
physical machinery was worked by and for them, and not as a
cooperative society. In Rumania the societies continued to work
more or less on their own old lines. This is true of the Austro-
German invasion, but the Bulgars seem to have behaved much
worse.

The position of a Rumanian cooperative society is admirably
illustrated by an account of the farming society at Oltenitza,
which has been through all the possible vicissitudes. The society
was founded in 1911, with a membership of 152, which, for the
reasons stated above, remained unaltered until after the War.
The society took a lease of 1,400 hectares, so that the average
holding was about 9 hectares. Unfortunately, the books for the
years 1911-16 were not available. When the invasion came,
the Bulgars found grain to the value of 980,000 lei (at par
£39,200), which they seized without compensation. The society
is now claiming this as part of its war damage. The Bulgars
destroyed all the books, etc., which they could find, but the man-
ager succeeded in hiding some of the ledgers, which the president
now has in his keeping. When the Germans took over the town,
things went better, and the society continued to exist until after
the War, when the land reform began. As a result of the land
reform the landlord who had leased the land to the society lost a
great portion of his property, and therefore the society did too.

SAKTA BARBARA COLLbun

52 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN RUMANIA

Now it has only about 670 hectares of land and 66 members. The
remaining members have been formed into a "temporary" so-
ciety. In 1919 the land was planted as follows: *

Htctartt

Wheat 176.25

Forage cropa - 12.49

Sugar be«t 52.67

Luceroe , - 48. IS

Maiac 257.15

Barky 20.50

Data 16.45

Rape 4.57

Vegetabica S3.9I

Total - — .- ~ 672.24

The plot described for vegetables deserves special mention.
This is a bit of land especially suitable for the growing of garden
vegetables, and is not worked by the members, but is let by them
in half-hectare plots to other persons (townsmen, etc.). This
letting brings the total number of persons who are using the land
to about 250.

The land cultivated by the society lies near the town. The
wheat had just been stacked, and the different members' stacks
were waiting for the threshing-machine. The maize was still
unripe, and it was almost impossible to distinguish one plot from
another, but a thin line of grass and weeds scarcely three inches
broad marked the divisions.

At Oltenitza there is a People's Bank, which was founded in
1904. The system on which the Bank is worked is as described
above, and typical of most of the Rumanian banks. Members
agree to subscribe a certain (variable) sum, to be paid up within
two years. When once the sum subscribed is paid up, a member
can withdraw up to nine tenths of the sum, provided that the
Bank is in a position to pay it; but the Bank has a right to refuse
to pay, a right seldom exercised. Membership can be resigned
only on the condition that the member remain responsible, for
two years after his resignation, for all debts contracted during his
membership.

'They alto bad a vineyard of 24.80 hectares. The rent paid wa* 81,400 lei for
the fields and 2,811 for the vineyard.

people's banks and agricultural conditions 53

The loans are made on much the same system as in ordinary
Raiffeisen Banks, except that loans are sometimes made on the
security of goods and not only on personal security. A member
applying for a loan fills up a form stating for what purpose he
wants the money. From the Oltenitza Bank's books are taken
the following two typical ones: (1) A shoemaker borrows 1,400
lei to improve his workshop; (2) a peasant borrows 200 lei to
buy a cow. The loans are guaranteed by one or two sureties, ac-
cording to the amount of the loan, the risk, etc., but are also given
on the security of goods. In one case a man borrowed 440 lei
on the security of two cows and a wagon. The Bank also dis-
counts bills. Loans vary from 100 to 75,000 lei, and even more;
the limit is fixed by the general meeting.

The Bank is governed by a Committee of nine, elected for three
years; each year three members retire, but are eligible for
reelection. This gives continuity to the general policy of the
Bank, and at the same time makes it answerable to the wishes of
the general meeting. Besides the committee, there is a Council
of three Controllers, who inspect the accounts and generally keep
a watchful eye on the administration of the Bank's affairs. They
make a report to the general meeting at the end of each year.

Besides its banking business the Bank acts as a consumers
society. It sells seeds, manures, etc., and also a few general
goods. There was a very small storeroom, with a small supply
of boots and shoes and some soap and hosiery, bought from the
English Cooperative Wholesale Society through the Agricultural
Federation at Bucharest.

It has a hall for meetings, and on Sunday nights social meet-
ings are held, and even plays are given there.

When the Bulgars came they destroyed the furniture and books
and burst open the safe, which was lying in the little inclosure in
front of the Bank's premises. (The same premises serve as
offices for the Bank and for the Land Society.)

It is not possible to give an account of the affairs of the Bank
since its foundation, as the Bulgars destroyed all the books, but
on December 31, 1919, its accounts were as follows:

THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN RUMANIA

Givnua BALAMct-SHur or thi Pioru'a Bank at Oltinitza

Resources

Liabilities

Cash.

Loans-

Capital io District Federf

tioo

Repayment for (oods from

Federation

Debtors' expenses.

Interest due on booua

Chattels.

Stock in hand

Reserve in (OTernment
funds

Interest on above*

Capital in the A. W. S..

Repayable expenses.

Salt*

Premises, etc.
Capital in Cent

Flag

Suspense.

171,276.61
1,484,466.20

22,325.90

16,640.00
6,635. 9S
21,535.95
11,886.25
19,116.85

26,040.00

4,500.00

1,300.00

4,851.45

1,020.00

39,172.30

10,000.00

3,276.50

10.00

1,849,835.06

Solvent capital

Dividend on capital

Deposits at interest

In District Federation Bank

Special fund for school

Fund for taxes

Interest forward

Flag amortisement

Premises amortisement

Chattel amortisement.

Provident fund

Reserves

For supervision work by

Federation

Bonuses.. „

Printing of balance-sheet ..

Total...

822,046.76

63,000.00

290,080.46

607,936.70

660.65

602.95

6,503.55

792.75

3,619.90

1,050.00

10,625.00

35,119.99

2,624.75
3,300.00
1,867.60

1,849,835.06

*1 /rt -9j4d.il franc at par. Rate of exchange, July, 1920, approximately 140
Iti to £1.

* Not paid for three years.

* A government monopoly distributed by the Bank.

From this it can be seen that the Bank is very active. Nearly
1,500,000 let were out on loan, which is a large sum — £60,000
at par; but the amount of goods on hand was negligible. A
total profit of 87,492.35 le'i was made, of which 65,000 (8 per
cent) was paid in interest on capital. The payment of varying
dividends on capital is a peculiar and unsatisfactory feature of
the Rumanian People's Banks.

Oltenitza is the headquarters of a District Federation of
People's Banks. It is one of the two Federals in the depart-
ment of Ilfov, which is a department 2,230 square miles in area,
with a population in 1912 of 681,759. It includes the City of
Bucharest, with about 340,000 inhabitants. There were 139
People's Banks in the department in 1918, of which only three

people's banks and agricultural conditions 55

were in Bucharest. The total membership of the 139 Banks was
38,517, of which the three in Bucharest accounted for 902, so
that the remainder of the department had 136 Banks,^ with
37,615 members in a population of about 341,800, or over 10
per cent.

The Federal at Oltenitza had 57 member Banks in 1919; un-
fortunately, the figures do not give the number of members in the
57 Banks. The Federation has a central office and store in the
town of Oltenitza. There was not a very large quantity of goods
in the store when I visited it, but the grain-buying had not begun.
The Federation either buys grain from the Banks and sells it, in
which case any profit balance is paid to the Banks, or it leaves the
grain in the Bank's hands until a suitable opportunity for selling
arises, and in the meanwhile is ready to lend money to the local
Bank on the security of the grain. In 1919 the Federation took
grain into its stores to the value of 3,287,467 lei, of which 1,260,-
272 was maize and 337,878 wheat.

The Federation was founded in 1914 by ten Banks, with a
capital of 78,000 lei, of which one tenth was paid up. In 1917 it
had 30 societies, with a subscribed capital of 134,500, of which
65,792 was paid up; by December 31, 1919, it had a paid-up cap-
ital of 186,002. The amount of its loans to local Banks came
to 2,619,599; it had 52,560 lei outstanding for loans on cereals
in 1919, and made a net profit for the year of 53,331 lei, which
was divided as follows: reserves, 5,303; dividend on capital (7
per cent), 14,716; fund for state taxes, 530 ^; disposable balance,
32,782. The turnover for 1920 up to July 17 was 4,698,773.

As may be seen, the Federation made steady progress in spite
of the War. This is the more remarkable as the town was first
captured by the Bulgarians and then occupied by the Austro-Ger-
mans. It still showed some signs of the Bulgarian bombardment.
The Bulgarians seem to have behaved with considerable brutal-
ity during their occupation. For instance, the local Bank had its
safe rifled and some of the books destroyed. On the other hand,

* See Annarul Bancilor Populare, 1918.

* The state takes a tax of 1 per cent on the profits of cooperative societies.

56 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN RUMANIA

there was almost universal testimony to the orderly behavior of
the Austro-Germans, except on the actual frontier, where there
was heavy fighting and some looting. They seem to have done
their best not to disturb the economic life of the country unneces-
sarily. In the case of the Federation at Oltcnitza they requisi-
tioned goods to the value of 68,748 lei.

The Federation at Oltenitza is one of 45 local Federations,
with a total of 2,966 Banks and 630,738 members. In 1913
there were 2,901 Banks and 583,632 members, so that there has
been an increase in the War period. The amount of paid-up capi-
tal has increased from 107,000,000 to 186,000,000 lei, but the
decrease in the value of money makes this figure illusory; but
while the amount of loans has fallen, for the first time, from
149,200,000 to 137,800,000, the amount of deposits has risen
from 17,540,000 to 60,370,000, and the reserves from 8,970,000
to 17,680,000, which is another illustration of the fact that the
farmers of Europe as a whole have turned from a class wanting
capital into a class with capital to dispose of, though, as said
elsewhere, the apparent increase in the farmer's money capital is
to some extent balanced by a decrease in his real capital of stock,
etc., and by the want of ordinary commodities and small luxuries
for him to buy. Still, the membership of the People's Banks by
itself shows that cooperative credit and trading has been most
successfully practised in Rumania. The total population of
Rumania in 1912 (the last census year) was 7,508,009, and if of
these 630,738 are members of the People's Banks we get a very
high cooperative average.

The New National Organizations

The higher organization of cooperation in Rumania was
originally concentrated in the Central for the People's Banks. It
was founded as a government institution in 1903, and had con-
trol of all the cooperative societies in Rumania. The movement
grew very rapidly, and from 1,027 societies in 1903 it increased to
2,901 credit societies (People's Banks), 23 productive societies
(machinery societies, etc.), 211 agricultural productive and sell-
ing societies, 271 rural consumers societies, and 364 societies for
hiring land.

THE NEW NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 57

The Central, which had been given a grant of 20,000,000 lei
by the state, was originally governed by a board nominated by
the Rumanian Ministry of Finance; but after the War it was
found that the work increased, and as the policy of encouraging
the formation of cooperative societies on a large scale was
adopted to meet the economic difficulties of the country, the Cen-
tral was divided into sections. At the same time a measure of
control was given to the societies. This policy has the approval
of all who are interested in cooperation in Rumania, as they
realize that up to this time it has been controlled too much by the
state. The heads of the movement said that they thought state
control was necessary in the early days of the movement, as the
standard of education in Rumania was low and the people un-
fitted for control. Those who disapproved of state control said
that the movement had been started by the schoolmasters and
more educated peasants, and that state control was merely an
excuse to exercise political supervision.

The author does not feel competent to pronounce any opinion
on the matter beyond saying that, while state control is bad for
any cooperative movement, probably the state in Rumania, by its
liberal grants of money, helped to spread the movement among
the peasants, who were a much oppressed and downtrodden class.
On the other hand, the state, until very recent years, had definitely
supported a very bad and oppressive land system, so that no doubt
it feared that any peasant organization might be dangerous.
The whole question is changed, now that the land system is being
radically reformed.

There are five departments, as follows, which were set up on
January 1, 1919, though they are under a general supervision.

( 1 ) The Central of the People's Banks, which has a commit-
tee half elected by the societies and half nominated by the Minis-
try of Finance. Its capital is about 24,000,000 lei, half of which
is supplied by the state.

(2) The Central of the Village Buying and Selling Societies,
which also has a committee half elected and half nominated.
Half the capital is supplied by the state. This Central includes

58 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN RUMANIA

til kinds of rural societies, except banks, such as forest exploita-
tion societies, fishing societies, machinery societies, etc.

(3) The Central of the Cooperative Farming Societies, with
a half nominated and half elected committee, and half the capital
supplied by the state. This is also the department for dealing
with the societies for working the confiscated land prior to its dis-
tribution and for dividing the land.

(4) The Department of Rural Mortgage Credits.

(5) The Department of Land Registry and Surveying.
These last two are purely state-controlled.

Besides these five divisions, there is a Central for Urban Co-
operative Societies, both distributive and productive, which is a
purely post-war creation. There was practically no urban co-
operation before the War. This will be dealt with separately at
the end of this section.

The Central for the People's Banks acts as a central bank not
only for the credit societies, but also does banking work for the
other Centrals (not the urban Central). It thus still plays an
important part in the life of the movement as a whole, though its
direct control has been withdrawn from the agricultural and farm-
ing societies. It helps the cooperative movement in general in
another way. It sends delegates to the general meetings of the
societies, and it has helped greatly in the spread of cooperative
education. Schools have been created and organized by the Cen-
tral to teach the theory and practice of cooperation to the mem-
bers of the committees and the employes of the People's Banks,
and by July, 1920, 30 of these schools had been established, at
which about 1,000 students have been taught.

The Central deals only with the Old Kingdom of Rumania,
but in the newly added areas of Transylvania and Bessarabia
there are cooperative movements which existed under the old
Hungarian and Russian regimes. Raiflfeisen credit banks have
been developed in Bessarabia, but as that country is still ( 1920)
under Russian law, and to some extent martial law, it has not yet
come into relations with the Central at Bucharest. The fear of a
Bolshevik invasion of Bessarabia was still felt. The societies in

THE NEW NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 59

Bessarabia are grouped in unions, which are independent of the
state, and are grouped in a Central Union at Kisinan. Accord-
ing to Cooperation in Rumania Integrita, published in 1920 by
the Rumanian Ministry of Agriculture, the number of societies
in Bessarabia was: 1904, 28; 1910, 253 (245 Raiffeisen credit) ;
1914, 357 (349 Raiffeisen credit); and 1919, 1,056, of which
429 were Raiffeisen credit, 9 unions of Raiffeisen credit, 603 con-
sumers societies (probably what we call agricultural societies),
and 4 unions of agricultural societies. It can thus easily be seen
that the War has had the effect of stimulating consumers socie-
ties. The total membership is given at about 600,000, of which
about 120,000 were members of the consumers societies. The
total of the balance-sheets was : credit societies of all kinds, except
unions, 32,600,000 lei; consumers societies, 7,900,000 lei; credit
unions, 38,500,000 lei; consumers unions, 3,850,000 lei; small
credit banks, 20,000,000 lei.

The Transylvanian societies had no connection as yet with
Bucharest, and there was no information to be got about them.

As regards war damage suffered by the cooperative movement
as a whole, it is hard to give any estimate. The damage suffered
by the Central for the People's Banks has, however, been as-
sessed. This, of course, does not cover the losses of Individual
societies. The Austro-German Government placed two officers
— one a German and one an Austrian — In charge of the Central,
which continued to work under their direction. The losses are
assessed as follows :

Lei

Subscriptions of cooperative funds to Austro-Hungarian war loans 1,674,700.00

Balance of confiscation by a captain of a district paid at wrong rate of

exchange 947.82

Money paid by order of government to a Hungarian merchant whose

grain had been requisited by the Rumanian Government 112,356.50

Interest on 5,000,000 lei taken for the institution of a credit society
{Landiairtschaftliche Darlehnskasse), subsequently liquidated by
the Rumanians 197.500.00

German requisition orders were made payable at the People's Banks,
and of 20,509,920 requisitioned only 8,000,000 had been repaid be-
fore the Germans retired. The Central paid the balance to save
the farmers from the loss 12,509,920.80

Total » 14.495.425.12

THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN RUMANIA

To this might be added about 18,000,000 Ui to represent the
difference between the requisition price and the market price of
the goods requisitioned. If this sum be paid it will be divided
among the societies in proportion to the amounts requisitioned
from them. The whole sum claimed by the Central thus reaches
less than 33,000,000 la, which, at the rate of 140 Ui to £1, would
be about £235,000.

This is highly satisfactory, as it shows that cooperation in
Rumania is in a very strong position and that the War has done
nothing to impede the progress and development of the move-
ment.

The Central for the Agricultural Societies {Centrala Coopera-
tixn SdUsti de Productir si Consum)^ which is the second
branch of the old Central for the People's Banks, had, before
1919, that is to say, roughly speaking, before the War and the
establishment of the separate Centrals, 783 societies, with 37,826
members, and a subscribed capital of 5,516,020 lei, of which
4,472,840 was paid up.

The societies were made up as follows :

Societies

No. of
societies

Members

Subscribed
capital

Paid-up
capital

Supply and sale.

Common sale of crops.

Bakery

MOls

Machinery-
Dairy...

Mining (chiefly lignite)

Various (wine, fishing, etc.).
Exploitation of forests.

TocaL

360
52
23
23
26
11
15
21

222

16,078

2,500

1,312

1,364

1,811

592

1,070

896

12,203

Lei

2,500,918
163,780
164,682
220,970
157,140
21,980
189,270
127,620

2,029,660

Ui
2,174,460

45,534
106,713
186,450

68,570

14,640

135,400

145,440

1,594,333

783

37,826

5,516,020

4,472,840

During the year 1919 there was a great increase In the number
of societies and the number of members. The following were
added :

THE NEW NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

Societies

No. of
societies

Members

Subscribed
capital

Paid-up
capital

Supply and sale.

Common sale of crops —

Bakery.-

Mills

Dairy

Mining.

Fishing

Various (wine, etc.)

Exploitation of forests

Total

232
3
1
6
9
1
4
3

182

13,368

140

325

426

163

201

11,197

Lei

5,260,540

9,450

26,500

100,855

62,440

17,550

74,230

170,600

6,353,688

Lei

1,589,130

2,708

8,450

91,015

11,320

6,225

13,300

55,140

1,448,383

441

25,873

12,075,553

3,225,671

It is thus obvious that there has been a great impetus given to
cooperation as a whole in rural Rumania. It should be noted
that the increase in nominal capital is nearly three times the in-
crease in membership, but that the increase in actual capital is
about equal to the increase in membership.

Unfortunately, traveling was very difficult owing to a shortage
of rolling-stock and fuel, so that it was exceedingly hard to see
much of the work of the individual societies.

The societies for working the forests presented unusual fea-
tures, and one at Campulung, about 100 miles from Bucharest in
the Southern Carpathians, was recommended as a good example.
Mr. Teodorescu, one of the staff of the Central, acted as guide,
supplied much information, and was kind enough to furnish many
of the statistics given in this report.

The Germans, during their occupation of Rumania, did their
best to develop it, for the purpose of getting war material, and
employed a number of prisoners in building light railways into
the forests. When the Rumanians regained their country they
made use of the German works, and, in some cases, as at Campu-
lung, formed new cooperative societies for working the forests.
There had been a number of forestry societies, but they were all
small. In the case of Campulung the Germans had built a big

62 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN RUMANIA

sawmill, which they connected with the main line of railway, and
also a narrow-gauge railway, 20 kilometers long, up into the for-
est. When the Rumanians recovered Campulung they found
120,000 cubic meters of wood already cut.

The Central for Agricultural Cooperative Societies organized
a society for the purchase of this wood and for leasing the rights
in the railway and the forest for a number of years. The society
is divided into three sections: (1) woodcutting; (2) sawmill;
(3) furniture-making. The members are both working and non-
working farmers in the district. On December 31, 1919, there
were altogether 410 members, of whom only 42 were workers,
and of the remainder 242 were farmers and the rest merchants,
etc. At the same date there were 254 workers in the society. By
July, 1920, there were about 500 workers, of whom about 200
were members. The members can subscribe for any sum from 50
to 5,000 lei, but they are altering the maximum to 20,000 lei.
Each member, however, has only one vote, so that the coopera-
tive rule is not broken. In December, 1919, the capital was
divided as follows: ^^^

57 members holding under 100 lei each — _.. 1,920

127 members holding 100-500 lei each 39,260

55 members holding 500-1,500 lei each 44,700

59 members holding 1,500-5,000 lei each _.. 162,500

Total „ 248,380

The balance-sheet to December 31, 1919, totaled 6,400,148
Ui, of which 304,680 were capital from all sources. The profits
amounted to 61,049 lei. There were 2,358,777 lei borrowed on
current account from the Central, and 3,150,000 were owed to
the Ministry of Forests for the timber. The division of the
profits is as follows : 10 per cent to the committees; 10 per cent to
reserve; 30 per cent to capital, with a maximum of 10 per cent
interest; 8 per cent to cultural and philanthropic work; 5 per cent
to war orphans, and 5 per cent to a fund to insure against acci-
dents and third-party risks on the railway. The actual distribu-
tion in 1919 was: reserves, 6,105; committees, 6,105; interest
on capital, 19,961; philanthropy, 831; to workers, 18,314.

The workers get their share as workers, not as members, so
that the distribution is equal as between non-members and mem-

THE NEW NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 63

bers. Membership is open to women. The society is divided
into two main sections — one at Campulung, which fells and
draws the timber and cuts it into boards; the other at Giurgiu,
on the Danube, about 100 miles away, where furniture is made.
There is a committee of nine elected by the members, and two
retire each year.

The average pay of a worker is 40 lei a day, and the cost of liv-
ing said to be 300 lei a month. This last is perhaps an under-
estimate, as a meal at a second-class restaurant costs 12 to 15 lei.

The forests are at the head of the light railway, which is 20
kilometers from Campulung. The actual felling was some dis-
tance from the rail-head, and the logs were floated down flumes
or slid down the mountain to the rail. The smaller logs were
floated down the river, and the big logs, and firewood which was
too small to collect from the water, were taken by rail. A good
deal of the handling of logs was done by women, which seemed
hard work for them, but they looked as if it agreed with them.
The actual amount of forest worked by the society in 1920 was
600 hectares, but they expect to get a further 1,500 hectares.
The state makes the stipulation that the society must plant an
area equal to that which they cut. There was fairly heavy fight-
ing in the mountains, and the houses on the way up to the forest
showed signs of damage ; but as no heavy guns were used in this
district, the damage was not comparable to that on other fronts,
or even at Praedeal, the frontier station north of Bucharest.
There was considerable looting in and near Campulung.

Besides the Centrals controlling rural societies of various
kinds, already described, there is an agricultural wholesale society
in Bucharest, to which both the People's Banks and the other
forms of agricultural societies may belong. The wholesale so-
ciety is purely cooperative, though its accounts are subject to state
control. It was founded in 1908 by 20 societies, and by 1920
had 350 societies, of which 150 are People's Banks. The socie-
ties are scattered all over Rumania, and one or two were coming
in from the new territories. However, the societies in Hun-
garian territories had, as a rule, limited liability, and so were
constituted slightly differently from the Rumanian ones, and that,

64 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN RUMANIA

with the difficulties of the exchange with crowns and rubles, made
it difficult for them to join the wholesale. It is possible that any
societies formed of Hungarians or Saxons would not like to join
a Rumanian wholesale. The couple of societies that have al-
ready joined are in the Banat of Temesvar. The currency ques-
tion was in course of settlement by the withdrawal of crowns.

The capital of the wholesale is 1,000,000 lei, and before the
War the share was 500 lei, but is now 5,000. The operations of
the society were suspended during the occupation of Bucharest.
The wholesale has a central store in Bucharest, where various
kinds of agricultural needs are on display and where some peasant
products (e. g., carpets) are sold. It also acts as a purchaser
of grain, but not cooperatively, as it pays for the grain outright.
For the time being the purchase of wheat was prohibited, as the
exports were controlled by the state, which only allowed exports
in exchange for imports; but it still bought maize and rape seed.
It has elevators at Braila,Constanza, and Galatz, and also stores
for imported goods. Before the War it dealt with about
5,000,000 lei worth of grain, and if exports were not restricted
its turnover in this direction would probably have reached a very
high figure. The turnover in 1919 was 100,000,000 lei, and the
society ordered goods to the value of £500,000 from the English
Cooperative Wholesale Society, and $10,000,000 worth of goods,
principally agricultural machinery, from Canada. The Coopera-
tive Wholesale Society goods at Oltenitza came through the
Rumanian Wholesale Society. This activity on the part of the
wholesale is the more remarkable in that the Austro-Germans
took all the goods which they found in the society's stores and all
work was suspended for three years. The Germans did not pay
compensation for the goods taken. When the wholesale re-
started work it found that many of the societies had been
destroyed, but they had all been revived by 1920, and many new
ones started. This information given by officials of the whole-
sale is difficult to reconcile with that given at the Centrals for the
different cooperative societies.

The society does no banking business or take deposits from
societies; but it has a credit with the Central up to 10,000,000

URBAN COOPERATION 65

lei, and as the liability of the societies to the Central and the
liability of the members to the societies are unlimited, it is easily
able to borrow more than necessary. The wholesale is thinking
of adopting limited liability.

Urban Cooperation

Urban cooperation was practically non-existent in Rumania
before the War, except for credit societies. Such urban societies
as existed were under the Central of the People's Banks. In
1912 the control was transferred to a newly formed Central of
Trades, Credit, and Workers Insurance, and so passed from the
control of the Central of the People's Banks. By a decree law
of February 9, 1920, the Directia Co-operatiei Orasenesti was
brought into being first as part of the Ministry of Trade and In-
dustry, and later of the Ministry of Labor and Social Propa-
ganda. It is governed by a committee of six representatives of
cooperative societies (3 of consumers, 2 of credit, and 1 of pro-
ducers), with four representatives of governmental departments
(one each from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the
Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Railways, and the Director
of the Institution itself).

The Direction has an office for supervising the rules of socie-
ties and a service of accountancy; and it also helps the societies
financially, for which purpose it has a credit of 10,000,000 lei
from the state, and the power to discount societies' bills at the
national bank for another 10,000,000 lei.

The three kinds of societies were divided on March 17, 1920,

as follows: Paid-up

Societies Members capital

Lei

Credit 56 6,560 2,827,000

Consumers 222 37,424 4,301,200

Productive 52 1,100 553,300

By July 10 the number of societies had increased to 64 credit,
295 consumers and 65 producers. The societies are, as may be
seen, generally very small, and this is the more remarkable inas-
much as the societies are confined to the few big towns of
Rumania, and chiefly to Bucharest, which has no less than 142

66 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN RUMANIA

separate consumers societies, 9 credit societies, and 36 productive
societies. The credit societies are of the well-known Schulze-
Delitzsch type. The consumers societies are usually formed by
small groups of men centered around either a clergyman or a fac-
tory, and each is jealous of its independence. The fissiparous
nature of consumers societies is emphasized by the fact that
there are two federations which act as wholesale societies for
consumers societies in Bucharest alone, and six others in Rumania.
The productive societies are divided as follows: builders, 19;
manufacturing (foundry, furniture-making, shoemaking, etc.),
37; purchasing of raw materials for members, shoemakers, etc.,
7; societies for selling in common the manufactures of their
members, 2.

The productive and credit societies were developing before
the War, largely because the big trade corporations were squeez-
ing out the small artisans. The state recognized the desirability
of helping the artisans, and did so through the state-controlled
cooperative societies. The officials of the Direction recognize
that the state control is, on the whole, undesirable, but feel that
the time has not yet come for the societies to stand on their own
feet. The consumers societies were all founded since 1918.

As typical of a consumers society we may take one called the
"Rumania," which was founded on July 1, 1919, by 52 members,
with a subscribed capital of 3,650 lei. By June 30, 1920, it had
720 members and a paid-up capital of 96,586 lei. The sales in
the first six months came to 681,119 lei, with a gross profit of
5,517 lei. In the second six months the sales reached 975,842
Ui; gross profit, 87,341 lei, with other profits (not from sales)
amounting to 19,508 lei, and a net profit- of 52,374 lei. The
store was just like any small cooperative grocery store in any
other country. There was a separate butchers department some
little distance from the main store. One of the credit societies
has its office in the same building as the consumers society, but
they are not connected in any other way.

The two federations which act as wholesale societies in Bucha-
rest are the Unirea and the Bucuresti, the Unirea being the larger.
It was established in June, 1919, by 17 societies and a capital of

URBAN COOPERATION (iJ

45,915 lei. By June, 1920, it had 79 societies, with a capital of
536,667 lei, and in the last six months had sold goods to the
value of 7,585,331 lei, and had a stock in hand worth 2,240,000
lei. It had deposited 800,000 lei with the Direction, and had a
reserve of 33,290 ; 6,788 lei were set aside for education and prop-
aganda, but so far not spent. However, a paper will be pub-
lished as soon as practicable. A pension fund of 13,200 lei had
already been accumulated for the workers. The other side of the
balance-sheet showed 2,140,000 lei owed to the Direction,
115,500 to the bank, and 170,812 deposited by the societies.
The net profit came to 149,241 lei.

Each society affiliated with the Unirea has to pay at least 10 per
cent of its capital to the federation, but this only totaled 82,453
lei on December 31, 1919. Each affiliated society has a repre-
sentative on the board, which elects a committee of five to carry
on the business, and the state has no control other than the exami-
nation of the accounts. Of course, the activities of the Direction
in controlling the individual societies must give it a good deal of
indirect power over the federations besides that arising from the
fact that it lends them money.

The headquarters of the Unirea is in a good building, with
large storing accommodations, near the center of Bucharest.

The Bucuresti was founded in May, 1919, by 40 societies, with
a capital of 20,480 lei. By June 30, 1920, they had 68 affiliated
societies and a capital of 201,628 lei. During the last six months
they had sold goods worth 5,102,161 lei, and accumulated a re-
serve of 20,201 and a propaganda fund of 4,205. It owed the
Direction 1,444,000 lei and its bank 421,700, out of a possible
credit of 2,000,000 lei. Its deposits from the societies came to
1 10,000 lei. The liability is limited to five times the capital. Its
net profit came to 19,921 lei.

The two federations are absolutely distinct, and do not work
together in any way, except that the state has given a monopoly
of selling the fish caught in the Danube to the cooperative socie-
ties, and the federations each gave 100,000 lei toward financing
the office for dealing with this business.

The productive societies are all post-war. It is too soon to.

68 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN RUMANIA

tay what they are likely to turn into, but a description of one will
be useful. A newly formed furniture-making society in Bucha-
rest was interesting. It was a flourishing little society, founded
in October, 1919. It started working on May 15, 1920, but was
hampered for want of capital, and it had to buy wood from
ordinary timber merchants at high prices. It had 9 members,
and employed about 30 persons, including the members. Each
member put up a share capital of 5,000 lei, and the Direction gave
them a credit of 700,000 lei, of which they have used 550,000, or
at the then value of money, about £3,920, which was hardly
enough to run the business. They bought their premises for
135,000 lei, and spent 102,000 lei on putting them into repair and
about 200,000 lei on machinery and tools. Up to July 22, 1920,
they had paid 67,266 lei in wages, and executed work worth
130,000 lei. The management rests with an executive commit-
tee of three, holding office for five years, and elected by the gen-
eral committee of the society, but for obvious reasons the presi-
dent actually signs contracts, etc. It will be interesting to see how
a management by three works. As is usual in continental co-
operative societies, there are also censors, or probiviri.

The rule for the division of profits is 10 per cent to reserve, 10
per cent to the executive committee, 8 per cent to the general
committee, and 3 per cent to the censors. Capital is to get such
interest, not exceeding 7 per cent, as the general meeting may
vote. The remainder of the profits is to go to the workers,
whether members or not, at the same rate. There were 12 non-
member workers, but the rules allow them to become members.
The society was engaged in making furniture for the new Cabinet
for Greater Rumania, and the work I saw was really very fine.
They had not many private orders as yet.

Another productive society — metal workers — was originally a
works belonging to a German, and after the War the Direction
got it going as a cooperative society.

Besides the official cooperative movement, there was an attempt
made some years ago to found Socialist productive societies.
They were a failure, and their failure has made the labor move-

URBAN COOPERATION 69

ment somewhat opposed to cooperation, but a number of Socialist
consumers societies were in process of formation in 1920. They
were not sufficiently far advanced for any account of them to be of
interest.

To sum up, the great characteristic of the Rumanian coopera-
tive movement is that it is state-controlled and fostered to a
degree unknown elsewhere in Europe and comparable only to
India. This does not seem to have hindered, but rather to have
helped, the actual progress of the movement, and it was very
interesting to see the government actually organizing societies
such as the productive and farming societies, which in other coun-
tries are regarded as of a dangerously socialistic description. It
is not possible for me to judge how far the paternal attitude of the
state has helped or hindered the growth of the cooperative spirit.
Looking at the matter from an outside point of view, it would
seem likely that the movement in Rumania has not the spontaneity
which should characterize true cooperation, and that it must lean
heavily on the state institutions. On the other hand, the educa-
tive work done by the Centrals must be useful ; and I found that,
though all those interested in the movement desired its ultimate
freedom from state control, even the most advanced thinkers on
cooperation in Rumania agreed that the backward state of the
peasantry made some outside help and control necessary.

They are looking forward to a new law to unify the legislation
on cooperation to mark a step forward toward the goal of free-
dom, but they would not like to see the control removed at once,
or even in the very near future.

I am much indebted to Mr. G. Mladenatz, a member of the
staff of the Direction and also assistant editor of the monthly
economic review, Independentsa Economica, in which several
interesting articles on the cooperative movement in Rumania can
be found.

PART III

THE EFFECTS OF THE WAR ON COOPERATION IN
NORTH ITALY

General Organization

Cooperation has developed in Italy in a more varied form than
in any other country in the world. There is scarcely a branch of
human activity which is not represented in one or another of the
hundred and one different types of cooperative society that are
to be found in Italy. The Italian cooperators build gigantic
palaces and ocean-going ships on the one hand and make orna-
mental heads for walking sticks on the other. Corn grown on
cooperatively owned, managed and worked farms may be ground
in a cooperative mill, baked in a cooperative bakery, sold in a
cooperative store and eaten in a cooperative restaurant. Yet,
despite these various activities, there are few big cooperative
societies in the country with the exception of a few well-known
societies such as the Unione Cooperativa in Milan and the Unione
Militari in Rome and such leagues as the League of Producers
Societies at Genoa. The majority of the distributive societies
are small, consisting of a group of a few men and women bound
together by some political or religious tie. The manufacturing
and productive societies, with a few exceptions, are small, and the
farming societies, though in a sense large, are necessarily limited
in their scope by the area of land which they are able to acquire.
The result is that the study of the development of the cooperative
movement in Italy is singularly difficult, and this difficulty is in-
creased by the fact that Italian cooperation is divided into politi-
cal, religious and social sections which do not work in harmony
and which, though each has its own particular federation or fed-
erations, are to some extent reluctant to give information which
might be useful to their rivals.

Taking agricultural cooperation first, there are three large
and distinct groupings. First, there are the socialistic farming
societies, which are termed the economic wing of a movement
which aims at the ending of private property in land and the so-

72 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN NORTH ITALY

cialization of the means of production. Then, there are the
Catholic farming societies, which aim at the distribution of prop-
erty in land among the farming and agricultural laboring classes.
Thirdly, there arc those cooperative societies which are formed
by the larger landowning class for the distribution of seeds,
manures, machinery, etc., whiph are regarded by the other two
groups as being decidedly anti-social and really a form of capi-
talist society. Besides these, there are agricultural credit socie-
ties, both Catholic and neutral, and dairy societies formed of the
cattle-owning farmers, which are largely neutral, though there are
such societies which belong to the Catholic party in the northeast
of the country.

It can thus easily be seen that anything approaching an ex-
haustive study of agricultural cooperation in Italy after the War
would be a gigantic task, which would probably take a year's
investigation and the results of which would occupy several
volumes as large as the whole present work.

Besides these agricultural societies, which are only one branch
of the cooperative movement in Italy, there are productive socie-
ties belonging to Socialist and Catholic leagues, and there is even
a group of productive societies separately organized in a Republi-
can league. The consumers societies are similarly divided, so
that any one Italian town almost certainly has two, if not three,
leagues of consumers societies, besides a number of "wild" socie-
ties, which do not owe allegiance to any federation; two, or pos-
sibly three, leagues of productive societies, a league or two of
credit societies, and a league or two of farming societies, as well
as a wholesale society run by the larger landowners of the district
around. It may well be imagined that five weeks' study of post-
war conditions in Italy serves rather to confuse than clarify the
investigator's impressions of that country. This report will,
therefore, confine itself to a brief outline of the development of
the cooperative societies belonging to the Socialist group in Milan
and Genoa, a few scattered facts about some of the farming socie-
ties, and a short account of the work of an interesting group of
Catholic reconstruction societies for the rebuilding of the devas-
tated villages in the area of the Piave.

SOCIALIST AND CATHOLIC GROUPINGS 73

From these and a few general remarks it is hoped that the
reader will be able to gather something of the post-war ideals
and of the comparative conditions of some groups of societies
before and after the War, which may serve to throw some light on
some of the recent and startling developments of the labor situa-
tion in Italy. But even for this it is necessary to have an idea
of the grouping of Italian cooperative societies.

Socialist and Catholic Groupings

All Socialist cooperative societies belong to an organization
known as the Lega Nazionale delle Cooperative, which has its
headquarters at Milan. All the societies belonging to this league
are Socialist; that is to say, all the members of the societies have
to belong to trade-unions which adhere to the Socialist Party
in Italy, a strong political party with a large number of represen-
tatives in the Italian Parliament. Apart from these restrictions
as to membership, the societies are not political bodies; that is to
say, they confine themselves strictly to business at their meetings.
The Lega Nazionale, however, is itself a political body and is in
close touch with the Socialist Party and with the Association of
Socialist Trade-Unions, so that acting as a whole the movement
is decidedly political. The Socialist Party adheres to the Third
International and generally speaking approves of the Soviet sys-
tem of government. The league itself is divided into three sec-
tions : ( 1 ) the agricultural section with headquarters in Bologna,
(2) the consumers section with headquarters in Milan, and (3)
the productive and labor section with headquarters in Rome.
Speaking generally, Socialist cooperation is to be found in the
north and northeast of Italy.

These three groups are in turn divided into local consbrzie of
which there is usually one in each big town or district, e. g., the
productive societies have each a consbrzio at Milan, Genoa,
Rome, etc., and are forming them wherever they do not exist.
These local leagues act as centers for administration, accountancy
inspection, credit facilities, etc., for the societies in their district.

The Catholic societies are similarly grouped. Their head-
quarters is the Confederazione Cooperativa Italiana at Rome,

74 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN NORTH ITALY

and the Catholic societies have also their local groupings of pro-
ductive societies, consumers societies, agricultural societies, etc.
The Catholic societies are strong in the south of Italy and in the
northeast, but in the south cooperation is not so fully developed
as in the north, and largely takes the form of rural credit societies.
There are, however, farming and other societies in the south.
Catholic cooperation is somewhat later in date than Socialist co-
operation, but is making rapid strides. Socialists and Catholics
each claim to have a greater number of societies and members
than the other and to be more progressive. It is, however, dif-
ficult for an outside observer to form any estimate as to the value
of these claims, but the general impression gathered by the pres-
ent writer was that the Socialist cooperative societies are more
developed and more numerous than the Catholic ones, at least as
regards higher developments of cooperation, but that Catholic
societies are increasing rapidly, both in membership and in
activity, and that if they maintain their rate of progress they
will soon rival the Socialist. The statistics of Italian coopera-
tion are not satisfactory and it is very difficult to get figures to
support or refute any such statement.

These two big groups — Catholic and Socialist — embrace the
greater part of Italian cooperation. They are very similar in
composition, and the societies run by the two groups are very
much alike, as the Socialist cooperative societies are connected
with the Socialist Party in the Italian Parliament, so also the
Catholic societies are associated with the People's Party (Parti
Popolare). In their ultimate the two bodies are very different:
The Socialists urge the communization of the means of production
and the abolition of private property; the Catholics base their
whole social outlook on the maintenance and protection of pri-
vate property, demanding, however, its more just distribution.
In practice the methods of the two are almost identical, because
the Socialists find that they have to yield to the lack of developed
public spirit among their members, and, in order to stimulate
their interest in the societies, have to pay out to individuals, in
the form of shares and bonuses, some of their profits which they
would wish to accumulate in their social funds. The Catho-
lics find it equally necessary to keep large reserve funds, which

CONSUMERS SOCIETIES

are in practice much the same as the social funds of the Socialist
societies, in order to be able to meet the usual emergencies of
trade. Outside these two groups there are a considerable num-
ber of cooperative societies. There is a large group of neutral
credit societies and several groups of agricultural societies. There
is also the small Republican group referred to above, but this does
not seem to be of much importance.

Consumers Societies

The Italian consumers society is much the same as the con-
sumers society in other countries, but differs from the English
type in that it has the political and religious flavor already re-
ferred to. Milan is the Italian town in which the consumers
society is most developed. It contains the mighty Unione Co-
operativa, the largest consumers society in Italy, and one of the
few societies which are non-political, but this society is regarded
as very bourgeois by the Italian working classes, and, in fact, most
of its members belong to the middle classes. Besides this big
society, there are numerous small societies of more or less im-
portance. In 1916 there were no less than 49 consumers co-
operative societies in the city. The Unione Cooperativa had
104 branches and 15,000 members, a large central store with
every kind of department, and it has started a garden city a short
distance from the town. The position of the Unione Coopera-
tiva during and after the War is shown in the following table :

Year

Members

Capital

Reserve

Sales

Profits

1912

14,526
15,087
15,127

Lire
6,343,000
6,295,000
6,357,000

Lire
2,732,000
2,426,000
3,144,000

Lire
11,089,700
14,896,000
58,482,000

Lire
657,000

1916.„„

962,000

1919

1,608,000

It shows that membership and capital have remained practically
stationary and that sales have increased, though not very much
more than in proportion to the fall in the value of money. The
collecting of statistics for the other 48 societies would be dif-
ficult, but the Socialists made an effort to consolidate their con-
sumers societies into a single society called the Alleanza Coopera-

76 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN NORTH ITALY

tiva Milanese, which was founded only in the beginning of 1919,
when it had a turnover of 1,016,000 lire in the half year and
about 8,000,000 lire in its first year. Membership of the Social-
ist society is confined to (a) members and workers of Socialist
cooperative societies existing in Milan on July 1, 1918, (b) mem-
bers of organized trade and professional unions which have not
a confessional character (this excludes members of Catholic trade-
unions), (c) members of the Italian Socialist Party, and (d)
all societies and institutions of persons admissible under (a),
(b), and (c). The object of the society is said to be to substi-
tute for the present capitalistic regime "a regime in which pro-
duction would be organized for the consumers collectively and
not for profit, and to acquire gradually the means of production
and sale for the associated consumers, so that they may have in
future the surplus riches they have created." Besides these two
above-mentioned cooperative societies, there is a large society of
railway workers and another of postal employes, the former with
6,000 members and the latter 11,000. The former had a fairly
large turnover of about 7,000,000 lire in 1915; the latter only
about one tenth of this.

A very interesting development has taken place all over Italy
by which the municipal authorities undertake a considerable
amount of the work of supplying the necessities of life to their
people. Over 200 Italian cities and towns have undertaken this
work and most of them began it between the years 1917 and
1919, though there are some traces of it as early as 1912. The
system adopted is to form a committee consisting of representa-
tives from the cooperative societies and charitable institutions.
This committee gets funds from the municipality and from the
associated societies, which it uses for organizing a supply of
foodstuffs, clothing, etc., which are sold either through the co-
operative societies or through stores specially set up for the
purpose.

The city of Milan, though not the first town to organize a
municipal supply, has developed it more than any other town in
Italy. The Azienda Consorziale dei Consumi de Milano did not
actually begin work until September, 1918, though there had been
a previous society of the same nature but more limited scope.

CONSUMERS SOCIETIES 11

The Azienda is constituted of (1) the Commune of Milan, (2)
consumers cooperative societies with over 500 members in Milan
and the surrounding district, and (3) legally constituted benev-
olent, provident and cooperative institutions, trade-unions, etc.
The capital on June 30, 1919, was made up as follows:

Lire

Commune of Milan 2,160,862

Consumers cooperative societies 97,090

Institutions 169,000

Thus it is seen that less than 4 per cent of the total capital was
held by cooperative societies and more than 90 per cent by the
municipality; besides this, the commune advanced 5,213,052 lire
on current account. The committee has six representatives of
the commune, six representatives of cooperative societies, two
of whom represent federations and one representative of the
charitable societies; so the cooperative movement is representa-
tive out of all proportion to its investment. There are 38 socie-
ties and 69 charitable and other institutions which belong to the
Azienda. The following balance-sheet for nine months gives
some idea of the amount of the municipal trading :

Debit
Capital: Lire Lire

Commune of Milan 2,160,862.25

Consumers cooperative societies 97,090.00

Institutions 169,000.00

2,426,952.25

Commune of Milan (current account) 5,213,062.78

Sundry creditors 4,820,451.57

Secured creditors 85,100.12

Total 12,545,566.72

Credit
Capital still owing:

Consumers cooperative societies 36,187.00

Institutions 7,667.00

43,854.00

In bank 669,135.99

Goods in store 5,992.839.3 1

Sundry debtors 4,652,213.28

Securities 3,250,000.00

Materials for packing 64,000,000.00

Building, machinery, tools, wagons, beasts, furniture, etc. 961,956.60

Deeds and deposits of property (of third parties) 85,100.12

12,472,339.30
Balance loss 73,221.92

Total 12,545,566.72

78 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN NORTH ITALY

The Azienda itself owns 60 depots for the sale of its goods and
supplies 155 cooperative stores including branches.

The Azienda supplies all the principal necessaries of life to the
citizens at the cheapest price possible. During the nine months
from October, 1918, to June, 1919, it supplied, among other
things, 207,591 quintals of flour, or about 20,000 tons, 122,511
quintals of rice, 20,965 quintals of frozen meat, 8,477 quintals of
sugar and 1,553 quintals of soap, in addition to such things as
candles, matches, coffee, tinned meat and fish.

Besides the mere purchasing of goods, the Azienda has estab-
lished factories for making boots, clothing, etc., and a dairy for
supplying milk and milk products. The dairy is run on the most
up-to-date hygienic lines and the factories are also well equipped,
airy and well lighted, and pay good wages. The goods manu-
factured are sold through the Azienda and each has its price
stamped on it, in order to frustrate any attempt at profiteering.
The government sold a quantity of surplus cloth and leather to
the Azienda, which enables it to produce very cheaply.

The development of municipal trading is due to the pressure
of war conditions, but the general opinion was that it would be-
come a permanent feature of Italian economic life. It may pos-
sibly lead to some form of national production, as the Aziendas
of other towns (e, g., Bologna) already purchased goods from the
Milan factories for their own citizens, and it is not a long step
from this to the establishment of jointly owned and worked fac-
tories for the whole country.

The consumers' movement in Italy, except so far as its politi-
cal and divided nature is interesting, presents no special fea-
ture worthy of study. The municipal trading is the one really
interesting development. The productive and labor societies, on
the other hand, are intensely interesting and have developed in a
very remarkable manner. A description of the position of these
societies in Milan and Genoa in 1920 may be taken as giving an
idea of how they are progressing, but it must be remembered
that Genoa is the most developed town in Italy, and Milan the
next, as regards cooperative manufacture.

the movement in milan 79

Cooperative Productive Societies

The Italian cooperative productive society is usually formed of
a group of workmen who have accumulated a small amount of
capital by weekly savings and started to work as their own mas-
ters. This form of association is not very new in Italy, as it has
long been a custom of manual laborers, such as navvies, to hire
themselves out in groups. On the other hand, there have been
cases where the trade-unions have deliberately founded such
societies and have accumulated funds by a general levy on the
members of the union.

The total number of productive societies given in Italian sta-
tistics for 1915 was 3,015, of which only 1,884 furnished returns.
These had over 257,000 members, so that there were probably be-
tween 300,000 and 400,000 members of productive societies alto-
gether. The total number of workers employed in industries
was about 2,300,000, so that, roughly, one seventh of the work-
ing population were members of cooperative productive societies.
This shows how widespread the producers' movement has be-
come.

As said above, the societies are formed into local federations,
the federations of Genoa and Milan being the most developed.
The following description of these two federations will give the
reader an idea of what to expect from Italian cooperators.

The Movement in Milan

The league of cooperative societies in Milan is called the
Federazione Milanese delle Cooperative di Produzione e Lavoro,
and has 31 societies belonging to it. These include building
societies, ironworkers, stonecutters, painters, printers, porters,
cane and umbrella makers, furniture makers, navvies, etc. The
three societies described below are typical of well-worked produc-
tive societies :

The printing society, called La Tipografia degli Operai, which
was founded in 1880, is a large printing works in Milan. This
society is somewhat unusual, as it was formed by the Milan branch

80 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN NORTH ITALY

of the printers trade-union, which compelled its members to sub-
scribe 10 centimes a week until each of them held ten lire shares
in the society. With the fund thus raised, the printing works
were established, so that in ei]fect it is the property of the local
branch of the trade-union. The control is vested in a commit-
tee elected by the shareholders, and the workers do not share in
its profits, but the profits are devoted to benevolent and other
funds for the benefit of the Milanese printers in general. The
workers are employed in order from the rota of unemployed
printers in Milan. The society suffered during the War. A num-
ber of the workers were called to the colors and its pay-roll fell
from 108,000 lire in 1915 to 74,800 in 1916. By 1918 it had
risen to 114,000 lire, but the fall in the value of money would
more than balance this rise; in 1919 it rose to 231,000 lire.
There was a slight tendency to fall before Italy entered the War,
as in 1914 the figure was 102,526 lire, but this was such a small
fall that nothing can be argued from it. The value of the work
done in the same years was: 1913, 217,114 lire; 1914, 194,514
lire; 1916, 258,674 lire, and 1918, 546,323 lire. This shows the
immense increase in the price of raw materials, chiefly paper, as
the value of the work done in 1916 was over 40,000 lire more
than in 1913, though the pay-roll had fallen by over 25 per cent.

The capital of the society in 1915 was 120,779 lire; in 1916,
123,387; and in 1918, 138,576. This was the only society where
I succeeded in getting a balance-sheet, a portion of which is repro-
duced at the top of the opposite page.

In the year 1919 the amount paid in wages had risen from
109,817 to 231,138 //W.i

The division of the profits is interesting. The share capital
of 170,936 lire was divided between the compositors branch and
the printers branch of the local union. There were 1,452 com-

*The figure 109,S17 U taken from the balance-sheet for 1919. It does not agree
with the figure of 114,137 given in the Origine t lo Sviluppo della Federatione delle
Cooperative, quoted above, as the latter figure includes the bonus to the manager.
If the bonus (6,000) for 1918 be added to the figure for 1919 we get 231,138.
Siniilarly, the figures in the Origine for the amount of work executed are adjusted
to allow for work in course of execution, and so appear somewhat higher than the
figures in the balance-sheet.

THE MOVEMENT IN MILAN

Abbreviated Balance-Sheet of the Printers Cooperative Society for the
Year Ending December 31, 1919

Resources and liabilities

1918

1919

Debit
Social capital:

Compositors branch-
Printers branch.-

Lire

72,400.40
34,968.10

Reserves

Current accounts-
Effects to be paid-
Net profit.

Total..

Lire

107,368.50
31,218.44

214,565.43

92,256.00

4,286.99

449,695.00

Lire

103,457.65
67,478.75

Lire

170,936.40-
33,761.83

148,222.81

89,342.30'

7,344.91

449,608.25

Credit

Cash in hand

Current accounts:

Bank.__

Clients

405.66
99,557.37

Stock in hand:

Paper, envelopes, etc

Ink, roller, etc

Work in progress

1,920.83

99,963.03

162,190.75
18,666.45

98,381.00
17,568.00
24,788.00

Realizable effects

Machines, furniture, etC-

Deposits

Buildings, etc._

Total

140,737.00
2,489.00

86,626.05
5,684.35

96,000.00

449,695.00

26,256.35
12,843.50
27,895.35

1,777.45

182,226.40;

66,995. 20<
6,831.0a

90,393.00
3,384.35

98,000.00

449,608.25

positors and 1,379 printers, but the former had 103,457 share
capital or a little over 71 lire a head and the latter only 67,478
or a little less than 49 lire a head. The net profit of 7,344.9 1 lire
was divided according to the laws of the society, as the above
table shows.

A second society visited was a walking-stick and umbrella-
handle factory founded in 1907 with the small capital of 1,550
lire and 54 members. By 1913 it still had the very small capi-
tal of 4,843 lire and by 1918 had only increased it to 9,073 lire.
Despite this, the society had an admirable workshop and seemed

82 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN NORTH ITALY

very busy. The turnover of the society had decreased slightly
in 1915, but had recovered by 1917, which is curious, as luxury
trades as a rule suffered during the War. From 1917 the turn-
over showed a steady Increase, but as a balance-sheet was refused
it is impossible to give any details.*

A third society for making iron furniture (bedsteads and tables
for hospitals, etc.), founded in 1904 with 74 members, had con-
siderable difficulty in establishing itself, but by 1908 had a turn-
over of 203,463 lire. It did not increase its business much until
1918, and actually did less business in 1913 and 1914, but by
1918 it had risen to 361,854 lire, which, considering the fall of
the value of money, was a very slight increase. The pay-roll was
82.438 lire in 1910 and fell to 49,561 in 1913 and to 38,736 in
1916. In 1918 it was only 43,1 18 lire. The capital, which was
5,182 lire in 1906, rose to 22,247 in 1912, fell to 18,631 in 1914
and gradually rose to 38,495 in 1918. The figures are taken
from the Origine e lo Sviluppo. A balance-sheet was not pro-
curable, so that the above figures are all the definite information
obtainable. The last two societies, unlike the printing society,
were formed only of the workers in their respective factories,
and capitalized by them. Anyone applying for membership,
however, must belong to a trade-union of the right "color" (in
these cases, Socialist) and must then be proposed and seconded
by members of the society.

The above examples, though they do not include the big build-
ing and labor societies, are fair examples of the form of coopera-
tive productive society found in Milan, and the others, large or
small, are formed on similar lines.

The productive societies in Milan are all members of the
Milanese Federation of Cooperative Productive and Labor
Societies (Federazione Milanese delle Cooperative di Produzione
e Lavoro), which was founded in 1903 by a small group of Social-

' I found it extremely difficult to get figure* from the productive societies and was
absolutely refused balance-sheets in most cases. This I understood to be largely
because the societies were afraid that publication of their position would injure
them, though there was a suggestion also that they did not wish the revenue authori-
ties to know too much about them.

THE MOVEMENT IN MILAN

ists. It did not take definite shape for a year or two, but by 1904
there were 24 societies with over 5,000 members affiliated with it.
It actually began its work in 1906 and acts as a central body for
making contracts, where more than one society is involved, for
obtaining credits, for accounting, inspection, etc. In cases where
a contract involves the work of several societies, the Federation
signs the contract and divides the work among the different socie-
ties. Any profit made goes partly to the Federation and partly
to the different societies.

To help in its work, the Federation employs a staff of trained
engineers, architects and accountants, but Italian law does not
allow these employes to be members of the societies which employ
them.

The Federation is not as careful to keep its financial position
secret as are the individual societies, and the following figures
show how it has progressed since 1908. It is necessary to go
back to that year in order to show the extraordinary fluctuations
in the amount of work done. From the table it appears that the
War had no marked effect on the prosperity of cooperative pro-
duction, as a whole, in Milan.

Financial Condition of the Cooperative Federation of Milan, 1908-1919

Year«

Value of work

executed or in

course of

execution

Paid for

labor,

materials,

etc.

Expenses
of adminis-
tration, etc.

Net profits

1908-9

Lire
2,117,662
2,332,885
3,085,401
3,264,852
1,928,801
1,818,457
1,845,186
2,759,364
1,942,078
3,710,621
3,789,658

Lire

2,055,538
2,250,324
2,947,495
3,156,737
1,818,511
1,704,706
1,712,912
2,625,264
1,790,647
3,534,148
3,575,556

Lire

42,253

76,658

128,281

91,132

92,059

95,742

114,663

121,467

126,770

147,908

168,129

Lire
35,605
23,963
26,287
28,138

1909-10.

1910-11

1911-12

1912-13

30,438
30,030
29,015
25,915

1913-14

1914-15

1915-16...„_

1916-17

36,641

1917-18 „„

1918-19 „...._

54,606
63,286

'The financial year runs from July 1 to June 30.

84 the cooperative movement in north italy

The Movement in Genoa

Genoa is the center of a very active cooperative productive
movement, which is centered in the Consdrzio Ligure delle Co-
operative di Produzione e Lavoro. The Genoese societies are
many of them very strong and they have undertaken construc-
tion work on a big scale. The most celebrated society in Genoa
is the shipbuilding society, which owns the largest shipyard in
Genoa and does much repairing and shipbuilding work. This
society has about 600 workers. It was not possible to get any
definite information as to its position, as balance-sheets were re-
fused, but the yard looked very prosperous and busy. The
society was founded in 1907. It was very small and had only
about 5,000 lire capital. According to the reports of the Con-
s6rzio, it had 116,015 lire paid-up capital in 1914 and 649,299
in 1918, and the value of the work done had increased from
1,095,325 lire in 1914 to 9,000,000 in 1918.

The coal porters of the port have also formed a large society
which controls practically the whole labor of the harbor. It
increased its capital from 126,979 lire in 1914 to 332,979 in
1918.

There is also a prosperous society of ships' carpenters.

Besides the societies connected with shipping, there are a num-
ber of powerful building societies, which have, among other con-
tracts, undertaken the building of an immense hospital for the
municipality of Genoa. The societies had tendered for the
building of the hospital in competition with ordinary contractors.
The municipality offered 7,000,000 lire for the work, but no
private contractor would do it for that price. The cooperative
societies, however, undertook to build the hospital for 7,000,000
lire less 10 per cent. The contract was tendered for and signed
by the Cons6rzio, which, like the Federation at Milan, has a staff
of engineers and architects. The different parts of the work —
building, woodwork, plumbing, etc. — were then given out to the
different societies.

Each society is responsible for the discipline of its own men,
but, in order to facilitate the general working of the scheme, a

THE MOVEMENT IN GENOA 85

weekly meeting of representatives from each society is held, at
which the work for the coming week is discussed and so arranged
that the work of one society will not impede the work of another.
The result seems to be satisfactory.

According as the work proceeds, payment is made by the
municipality to the Cons6rzio, which in turn pays the societies.
The Cons6rzio borrows money from the Cooperative Credit In-
stitution to pay the societies in advance, and so enable them to
pay their workers and to buy the necessary materials for their
work.

In Genoa, roughly one half of the workers in the cooperative
societies are members. The remainder are either men who do
not wish to undertake the responsibility of becoming members
of the societies or men who are regarded as not desirable as
members. The societies are careful as to whom they admit to
membership, which is one of the secrets of their success. Trade-
union rates of wages are paid, and the profits are given partly to
reserve funds, party to provident and sickness funds, partly to
social funds to be used for the general good of the society, and the
remainder to the members in proportion to the work done by them.
Some societies give non-member workers a share in the profits.
The proportion of profits divided among the members varies
from 50 per cent to 80 per cent. Ten per cent is usually set
aside for reserves. Sometimes the managing committee gets a
small percentage for itself.

A general view of the position of the Genoese societies and
their Cons6rzio in 1914 and 1918 is given by the tables on pages
86 and 87.

The effect of the War on the societies was what might have
been expected. The shipbuilding and coal-porters societies
made great strides, and the other trades which did necessary
work (e. g., braziers, electricians) also made progress, but the
luxury trades, such as marble-workers, suffered a temporary set-
back. From the reports given in 1920 it would appear that all
the societies were benefiting by the peace, but no doubt the in-
crease in work which came in 1 920 had ended by 1921.

THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMEhTT IN NORTH ITALY

00 00 00 ^ '

I ft f«« M t^

8*^2

•a -a

^r^M««r>4^««Q0^00O00uSrs.tn^9

ooot'i«^^r>ia\aovpr^OO^>^r»ooO\ro^
rn^»— t^f«%Or<^*N — ^^^oo<OiooO
•♦OQO — cMr^ — — — O -*

e
5^2

l«

-. vO —
"* t<^ r^
00 t»» r^

i !
i !
i i
i i

r>« '^ 00 00 tr> rr)

S'* O '♦^ »« ^ »>• »^
^m U^ ^m r^ wt

a. "

"-u-^0\«0■*^CT^^^"^OQQ■♦OO^O^o
.J;iJ>OCTvr^t^ — •+"^ON^OOrnOOOO'*^^

as-

S888 8 8888888888888

vOuiQOQQQQOOOQQ
l^t^QOOOQQ'o*^ 00>OQ

w ui tn O >-^ "^ ">

888

00 m r^

00«— "'-'^«*l«^"^ <** wm rm wM tr\

•i i

^J !

! !

*<5

t; w fc

.2 £*'"s-c=w = £?li Er

I '.SCO

.J o 3 o t:

« c i« na _,

I 2 I
!(£ i

!< !

^ •— 5
.5 2^

S.S^'SS 2

2 ««
2 o

■5 c c 2
p. n J; n M ^

«* o 2

^.2 g

Cue

«< 5 >

^ II r*

CO > 0-

THE MOVEMENT IN GENOA

■*

c^ O O On

■*

•*

■<*

•»*< IT

»-C lO TjH 0\

NONOi-ttOCS-^NOWO-^NOr-HOOTt*

O "^ f^ f^

«-«.'cOt^^HCS^HONpONOC>»CO^H

CTN'0"^t^^^^ON<-l•*c■^^>-cs^HNO

ur)ON0N0»O-<*lCNC^N0'»tli-Hr-(0N

iri •>*< r^ CN

•«*

1— 1 O c<^ On

I— 1

►-^

vO O c-i

•»J<00tNu^^H(Siniy-i

t:?"

<<-> 00 r^

f-H "* On

>— I

r-»QQ00'<*i00r^v0"iO»^'-i»^Oi^«^NQO
«NOO000^r^^^*^nVO•-l^r-)0^OlO•^■*>O"^

tN»

•»J< Q <*N i-< O t~>. NO 00 00 00 On O i^ NO CTs -H ly^ tN

fMQ^ONr^voONOOO<^OOOONQ>-lOOCvlNOr<l

r^OcviONrnONrst~.<»-)mONiO'*-<*<oooocN»C

u->

-o

klj

«v»Qf^'-'NOooor^c^<Nu^cNtoootNQrsr>«

gNQt^r^^OOt^lriONOTj<t^OOCV)Tj«OtNm

"(3

<NI

rH On r<^ cs

c<^ Q NO
NO O '-'

r^ Tj< O W 00 <^
W-) Tti ^ J^ On Cvl

•a

lO r-H NO

CO On On CN CO lo

.*.

00 On 00

tJ^ 00 u-i »— 1 On <-H

<r> ON CO

•<*^-<*< O O ^""i

l^-* <N

CN rl CO CO •*

->*<"

«X"

T*. «

<NQNO<SOO<NW-NCyNNO'*t^NOr'igNfN«NO

00Or40NCNr-cto00r^t<-)iou-ir<^.-iO«^O00

Tj*

U
O

t>iNdcNii^,-itN-<iir^oo-HinNor>»'iXNoootv!cN

'^OOONONNONOm-^ONf-cO^NOi—C^^CTNQOO

<Nw^>-Hf^^^oow->^-40l'^^<^^o^^NO^^^— I'OtN

1/3

►^

fvl

-HtNlCvjT*<00N0O00->l<O Pn-^NOfSoC t^

■^

lr>ONNOt-H^-H.-i»-^ tN r-lON ^H

-<f

W
GU

1— lNOlOrt<c<->"^C>JCNOOOOOOO<MOOO«^OON

roONON"->0«NQT»<ioO'— iNd(NOO00Qh»
OOONt^f'-lCMO^-*!^'— i-^^hOOJ^iloONO'H
'>!t<CSONCN«Nf<^NOr<-lOt^ONOC-4NOOOr-.r^C

►^

■(3

r^iONt^OiocNlfSONOOmi— iiiiONOo"irrrn".-H"-^j>

r>»'<*<r<^cSi— ir<^l^.-Ht— I.— I CTn i-h

VO c«^ -^

t— (

-o

S888S8S88888888888

"rt

0^0 0 000000000000000
ir>iriQ"^0>-oQOO'— lOOo^Oi'liotriOO

0"^0»— 'COVoO0NC^t^r<^Tt<O<N00CNt^'^

►^

Tfi»-ifSrnoONOQO'*fOi— ct^dONio-^.— ii— (

00~

NO •* .-< ur,

C/3

'"'

o
o

<
u

_«

■^

4->

4> C

.„

•c

=2 fi

►-) .a c

O W"

c ♦^ 2

•n

§:l

S 2

c
c

Z
C

o
>

°£
'n

Oh
1

c
ti

<
a
O

li
bi
O

o
8

4-»

n
"C

•c

'Z
5

.2
't

4.
V

2
a

K-1

B8 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN NORTH ITALY

There are in other Italian towns similar federations to the ones
at Milan and Genoa; a new one was formed in Rome in 1920
and one was in process of formation in Florence. The general
impression given by a visit to the productive societies was that
the War had not affected them adversely, but on the whole had
benefited them. It is much to be hoped that a full investigation
of the position and prjspects of the cooperative productive socie-
ties will be made as soon as the present industrial unrest in Italy
is settled. They form one of the most interesting features in
the cooperative world today. Whether the Catholic productive
societies and the Socialist ones will ever unite into a federation
for all Italy remains a problem of the future. At present there
are no signs of such an amalgamation becoming possible, but if it
should ever happen, Italian cooperation will soon be in a position
to control the greater part of Italian industry.

The Movement in Venetia

Venetia is one of the strongholds of Catholic cooperation in
Italy, and Venice is the center of a union of Catholic productive
societies. The union is run on much the same lines as the
Genoese and Milanese federations, except that it is as definitely
Catholic in tone as the others are Socialist. An exception to this
rule is a society of lace-makers in Venice itself, which was formed
by charitable ladies to give employment to girls thrown out of
work by the War. It also made clothes and had a large contract
from the Government for uniforms. This society is non-political.
A very interesting post-war development, however, is the group
of Catholic reconstruction societies in the Piave Valley. This
district was almost destroyed during the War, and the villages for
a couple of miles on each side of the river are simply heaps of
ruins, and the houses farther back from the river suffered from
aerial bombardment.

The headquarters of the reconstruction societies is a Consftrzio
at Treviso, but the actual administration is carried on in two sec-
tions, one at Treviso and the other at Conigliano on the farther
or eastern side of the river. The work is carried out under a
certain amount of government supervision. The Ministry of
Reconstruction pays for the rebuilding of destroyed property,

THE MOVEMENT IN VENETIA 89

though if the owner wishes to build a better building than he had
he can add to the sum paid. When the Ministry of Reconstruc-
tion sanctions a plan for rebuilding, preference is given to coopera-
tive societies in placing the contract for reconstruction. A con-
tract based on the contract form prepared by the engineers of
the Ministry is filled in by the society which proposes to do the
work and is then sent to the headquarters at Treviso, where it is
submitted to the engineers of the Consdrzio and when passed by
them is sent to the cooperative Banco di Lavoro, which will ad-
vance 60 per cent of the value of the contract. The Government
pays in fortnightly instalments as the work progresses, but the
Banco di Lavoro takes over the payments and repays its own
loan, and the balance then goes to the society. The whole pro-
ceeding, from the application for reconstruction to the Ministry
to the advancing of the money, takes only a few days.

The Cons6rzio itself is governed by a committee of representa-
tives elected by the cooperative construction societies, and has a
staff of about 40 engineers and accountants. The Consdrzio was
organized by the headquarters of the Catholic cooperative socie-
ties at Rome, who appointed the officials in the first instance. It
then organized the societies, and is now controlled by a commit-
tee appointed by them. The impulse thus came from above, but
the control now rests with the societies.

The Consorzio is financed by taking 2 per cent on the contracts
made by the societies. It also acts as a wholesale agent for the
societies and supplies them with building materials, etc. It was
financed in the first instance by the cooperative Banco di Lavoro,
which is a federation of cooperative banks and is largely con-
cerned in helping new societies.

Up to June 9, 1920, the Consdrzio had done work to the value
of between 20,000,000 and 30,000,000 lire, and expected to do
work to the extent of 50,000,000 lire in the next year. It had
altogether about 1,800 houses to build, of which about 1,000 were
under construction by the Conighano division, and 800 by the
Treviso division.

The following is a description of two typical societies at Fagare
and Susegana. That at Fagare was founded in the early part of
August, 1919; by May 31, 1920, it had done work to the value of

90 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN NORTH ITALY

500,000 lire. It has 153 members, each of whom must be a
shareholder. The shares are 25 lire each, and liability is unlim-
ited. The balance-sheet had not yet been made up, but the
manager thought it probable that they would have made a profit
of about 50,000 lire. All such estimates, however, are very
untrustworthy. The laws provide that the profits are to be di-
vided as follows: 50 per cent to the members, in proportion to
the work done by them, 20 per cent to interest on share capital,
20 per cent to reserve, and 10 per cent to the employes of the
society, that is, to clerks, etc. Members are admitted by the
committee of the society, but in case of refusal there is an appeal
to the probiviriy or committee appointed to deal with disputes.
The working day is from 8 to 10 hours, and the wages vary
from 1 .40 to 2 lire an hour.

There are three different kinds of workers in the society:
laborers, builders and carpenters. The manager of the society
is himself a workman who has worked in many parts of the
world — France, England and America — and seemed to be very
intelligent. The premises consist of a small builders' yard, with
a carpenter shop attached, and a small sawmill.

The society at Susegana was like that at Fagare, except that it
has auxiliaries as well as members, 65 members and 65 auxiliaries;
and, as it was undertaking specially important reconstruction
work, it had a surveyor and an accountant of its own appointed by
the Consdrzio. The Susegana society was building a large num-
ber of houses, and, among others, rebuilding a convent school,
which was quite a big piece of work. It has also taken over a
small brick works which had been destroyed in the fighting, and
was hard at work making bricks at the time of our visit. The
furnaces had not yet been erected, nor had the society any machin-
ery for making bricks, which were all being made by hand.

The whole work done seemed very good and well organized.
It is run on definitely Catholic lines and the societies are looked
upon as centers of Catholic propaganda in the same way that the
Socialist societies are regarded by the Socialists. The offices,
both of the league and of the individual societies visited, gave one
the impression of great activity and concentration on the work;

AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES 91

and, however much the societies may talk politics out of working
hours, in working hours they certainly stuck to business.

Though this Cons6rzio and its component societies is entirely a
post-war growth, it is clear that it is intended to be permanent,
and that the Piave Valley, at any rate, will have a very strong
cooperative organization from now on.

Agricultural Cooperatives

From many points of view the cooperative farming societies
are the most interesting form of cooperation in Italy.

The Socialist farming societies are more interesting than the
Catholic ones, as the former have many examples of collective
agriculture, while the latter believe in individual ownership and
their cooperation is mainly for the leasing of the land which is
divided among the members. The headquarters of the Socialist
societies is a subfederation of the Lega Nazionale situated at
Bologna (Federazione Nazionale di Cooperative Agricole).

The societies are divided into two classes : ( 1 ) those which,
like the Catholic societies, divide the land among their members
(affitanze divise) and (2) those which practise cooperative farm-
ing (affitanze collettive). The first need not be described here,
as they are roughly similar to the Rumanian societies. The
second are more favored by Socialists, though the leaders of the
federation are not doctrinarians and do not attempt to force their
views where they are not sure of success.

The land system of Italy differs in different parts of the coun-
try, but the most usual system was the mezzadria system, by which
the landlord provides a certain proportion of the seeds, cattle,
implements, etc., necessary for the cultivation of the land, the
tenant works the land and the produce is given half to the tenant
and half to the landlord. This system has become very unpopu-
lar and is rapidly disappearing. In the district near Florence,
for example, the main features of the system have been retained,
but a union of tenants has forced the landlords to come to a writ-
ten contract with them, whereby the tenant's tenure is secured, and
the exact amount of work he is to do for the landlord and the
exact amount the landlord is to allow for every beast or be al-

92 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN NORTH ITALY

lowed for beasts that die, etc., is laid down as rigidly as a fixed
rent in money. Security of tenure was the chief desire of the
tenants, but they are coming more and more to demand fixed
money rents instead of the sharing system. Besides this, there
it a strong movement in northern Italy for nationalizing the land,
and in many cases land has been seized and cultivated by bodies of
agricultural laborers. These seizures are called "invasions."

The lot of the agricultural laborer was bad, and as an outcome
of a prolonged strike in the district of Reggio, Emilia, a piece of
land was secured from friendly owners by a number of laborers
and worked collectively by them to provide themselves with
work during the strike and the slackness which succeeded it.
From this the collective farming societies took their rise. Be-
fore the War these societies were growing rapidly and on the
whole succeeding well, and during the War the Italian Govern-
ment passed legislation to insure the proper cultivation of land,
which helped them considerably.

In 1920 the societies were increasing so fast that the federa-
tion, which had been founded in 1918 with the special object of
looking after the agricultural societies, could hardly keep pace
with the work.

The societies are much helped by the fact that a great number
of public bodies in northern Italy have Socialist majorities which
are ready to let lands to cooperative farming societies. Private
landlords also find the societies satisfactory to deal with; they
are a solution to the labor difficulties which beset Italian land-
owners. Nearly all the agricultural labor is organized into trade-
unions, which have done much to improve the condition of the
laborers, but which make things difficult for the employers. A
result of this is that there are hard and fast regulations as to the
hours of work and pay for every kind of agricultural work.
The work day is short (6 to 8 hours) and the meal times and
rest times are carefully specified. This is possible in a country
like Italy, where the climate allows of regular work in the fields,
but it would be impossible in Ireland, where it is often impossible
to prophesy what work can be done the next day.

The societies, which are usually attached to trade-unions,
though separately organized, practically control the labor in their

AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES 93

districts and arrange at weekly or, in some cases, daily meetings
who is to work for private employers and who to work on the
society's land. Besides their agricultural work, the societies
undertake contracts for draining, road-making and other manual
work. As the societies usually have many more members than
it would be possible to employ on their own land, they become a
mixture of cooperative farming society and labor bureau. It is
unusual for men to be employed for long consecutive periods on
the society's land, but they take turns in working for the society
and in working outside it. The foremen, heads and other
responsible workers are, of course, full-time workers, but they
get a lower rate of pay than the ordinary workers, as a balance
to the security of their position.

Under the big federation at Bologna there are district federa-
tions, which employ accountants to audit the societies' books and
experts to advise them on any difficulties that may arise. As may
be imagined, the constant changing of the workers means compli-
cated accounts, so that accountancy help is much needed.

The following description of two cooperative farms will serve
to illustrate the various points which are mentioned above. Pro-
fessor Mami, of the National Federation, was very kind in ex-
plaining the working of the farms.

Cooperative Farm at Massa Lombarda, between Bologna and
Ravenna : This society farms about 200 acres of land, part of
which (about 50 acres) is a fruit farm held from the owner of a
jam factory on the mhzadria system. Half of the fruit goes to
the owner and the remainder is sold to him. There are 400
members in the society, of whom about 20 at a time are employed
on the fruit farm and a small number on the ordinary farm. The
total pay-roll in 1919 was about 70,000 lire. The workers get
about 20 lire a day. The members of the society include prac-
tically all the agricultural workers in the small district of Massa
Lombarda, so that any private landowner has to apply to the
society if he wants a laborer, man or woman. The society takes
contracts for road-making, etc. The foremen are called "special
workers" and are employed for their whole time. They are paid
1 6 to 17 lire a day. ( Prewar wages were from 4 to 5 lire a day. )
The special workers are appointed by the manager of the society,

94 THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN NORTH ITALY

who is subject to an elected committee. The committee is elected
for two years and one half retires each year. The shares arc 10
lire each. The profits are divided in proportion to the amount
of days worked by each individual, who is provided with a small
book in which each day's work done by him is entered. The
member's work is also entered in a ledger each day, and every
week the books are sent to the local federation to be made up.
The society has its office in the local trade-union hall, with which
it is in close touch.

At Molinella, about ten miles north of Massa Lombarda,
there is a larger society, which holds about 1,500 acres of land,
of which about 500 is used for growing rice and about 250 for
wheat and maize. The remainder is used as a reservoir for
water to flood the rice fields, so that only about 750 acres are
cultivated. Out of the 10,000 inhabitants of the district, 3,000
belong to the society, so that it has practically complete control
of the labor of the commune. This society was formed in 1905,
and after some years of struggle and loss was on the verge of
ruin in 1912. In this year the members each gave a day's work
free, to try to save their society, and a new and enthusiastic man-
ager, Signor Massarenti, by reducing the expenses of administra-
tion from 23,614 lire to 1,255, brought the society to a sound
financial position. In 1914 a profit of 790 lire was made. It
was not possible to get figures for later years, but the society is
said to be progressing well. It has a well-equipped farm with
ujvto-date machinery, threshing machines, tractors, etc. This
society also undertakes contracts of various kinds. Signor Mas-
sarenti did not like rice cultivation, as he considered it very heavy
and unhealthy work.* He hoped to be able to abandon it for
other forms of agriculture. He is strongly opposed to any form
of divided ownership.

As at Massa Lombarda, the work is done by the members of
the society working in their turn, and only a few foremen are
permanently employed, but they hope gradually to increase their

* Signor Massarenti is not a farm worker, but is a man who has devoted to the
laborers in his district talents which would have gained wealth for himself.

AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES 95

land until they are able to keep their members permanently em-
ployed. The society holds its land on lease, not on the mhza-
dria system.

Of the 150 farming societies belonging to the federation, about
100 are for collective farming on lines similar to the two societies
described above, and the remainder are societies for dividing the
land acquired by them among their members ; but even these lat-
ter have sometimes a certain amount of land held in common for
grazing or some other use which lends itself to collective owner-
ship. In the same way, some of the Catholic societies have a cer-
tain amount of land held in common.

INDEX

Agram, see Zagreb.

Agrarian Bank, of Zagreb, 20-1.

Agricultural consumers societies: num-
ber of, in Serbia, 7; work of, in Kora-
cica, 11, 13 ; in Markovec, 16-7 ; in Slo-
venia, 29 ; in Rumania, 45 et seq., 56.

Agricultural cooperation: in Jugoslavia,
5 ; in Rumania, 47-8, 56 ; wholesale
societies for, in Rumania, 63-4; in
Italy, 71-2, 91 et seq.

Alleanza Cooperativa Milanese, work of,
75-6.

Arangjelovac, 14.

Assurance societies, number of, in Dal-
matia, 33.

Austria: 4, 30; invasion of Selo-Banja,
by, 14-5 ; invasion of Markovec by,
16; effort of, to centralize coopera-
tion, 32; annexation of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, 36.

Avramovitch, M., work of, in coopera-
tion in Serbia, 6 et seq., 19, 23.

Azienda Consorziale dei Consumi de
Milano (Municipal supply society of
Milan), work of, 76 et seq.

Bancilor Populare (Peoples Bank), co-
operative work of, in Rumania, 45 et
seq.

Banks: central, of cooperative societies
in Serbia, 7 ; Agrarian Bank of Za-
greb, 20-1 ; cooperative, in Sarajevo,
39 ; People's Banks in Rumania, 45
et seq.

Barley: raised in Serbia, 9; in Bukovec,
24.

Bee-keeping societies, number of, in Dal-
matia, 33.

Belgrade : population of, 3 ; central co-
operative bank at, 7; work of con-
sumers societies of, 43,

Bessarabia: land reform in, 49; Raif-
feisen banks in, 58-9.

Bol, work of cooperative societies in,
33-4.

Bologna, headquarters of agricultural
section of Socialist societies at, 73, 91.

Bootmakers society, work of in Ljubl-
jana, 32.

Bosnia: area and population of, 5; Aus-
trian annexation of, 16; work of co-
operative societies in, 36 et seq.

BrSila, 64.

Bucharest: 54; agricultural wholesale so-
ciety in, 63-4; work of cooperative
societies of, 65-6.

Bucuresti, wholesale society in Bucha-
rest, 66-7.

Building societies, in Slovenia, 29 et
seq.

Bukovec, work of cooperative store and
credit societies in, 24 et seq.

Campulung, work of forest societies at,
6.1 et seq.

Carinthia, 4.

Carniola, area, population and indus-
tries of, 4.

Catholic cooperative societies, work of,
in Italy, 73 et seq.

Cattle-raising: in Serbia, 10; societies
for, in St. Ivan Zabno, 28 ; in Slo-
venia, 29.

Centrals: for the People's Banks in
Rumania, 46, 56-7; for the Village
Buying and Selling Societies, 57-8 ; for
the Cooperative Farming Societies, 58 ;
for Urban Cooperative Societies, 58;
for the Agricultural Societies 60 et
seq.; of Trades, Credit and Workers
Insurance, 65 et seq.

Coal porters society, work of, of Genoa,
84.

Confederazione Cooperativa Italiana,
headquarters of Catholic cooperative
societies, 73-4.

Consbrzio, work of, 73, 84—5, 89 et seq.

Constantinople, 10.

Constanza, 64.

Consumers societies: work of, at Mlade-
novac, 10-11; in Slovenia, 30 et seq,;
in Dalmatia, 33 ; "Rumania," 66 ; in
Italy, 72-3 ; 75.

Cotton, raised in Serbia, 9.

Credit: need of, in Serbia before War,
8; given by Cooperative Union of
Belgrade, IS, 18.

Credit societies: work of, in Serbia, 7;
in Koracica, 11-2; in Agram and
Osijeh, 19-20; in Bukovec, 24 et seq.;
in Slovenia, 29 et seq.; in Dalmatia,
33; in Bol, 33-4; in Rumania, 45 et
seq., 56.

Croatia: area, population and indus-
tries of, 4; types of cooperative socie-
ties in, 6, 20 et seq.

Croatian-Slovenian Agricultural Society,
21.

Dairies (cooperative): in Serbia, 7; at
Ricica, 27; in Slovenia, 29 et seq.

Dalmatia: area, population of, 4; work
of cooperative societies in, 33 ^/ seq.

Distributive societies, number of, in Ser-
bia, 7.

Duhrovniku, cooperative union of, 33.

Fagare, work of reconstruction society
at, 89-90.

INDEX

Farming Mdetiea: at Oltenitta, Sl>2; io
Italy, 91 tt ttq.

Federation: work of, io Rumania, 55;
io Milan, tS.

Fiahing aodetiet, in Dalmatia, 33-4.

Forest aodetiea, work of, at Campulung,
61-2.

France, cooperative movement in, 1.

Furniture-making tocietiet: in Bucha-
rest, 6S; io Milan, 82.

Galatx. 64.

Genoa: productive and labor todeties
in, 7S-9, 14-5 ; financial condition of
cooperative aocietiea of (1914-18),
86-7.

Giurgiu, 6S.

Goritzia, 4.

Herzegovina: area and population of,
5; cooperative sodetiet of, 36 et seq.

Home industry sodetiea, work of, in Slo-
venia 29 et seq,

Hungary, 22, 26.

Ilfov, 54.
latria, 4.

Italy, character of cooperation in, 2;
work of cooperative societies of, 71
ei seq.

Jugoslavia, character and work of co-
operative societies in, 2 et seq. See
also Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Dal-
matia and Bosnia and Herzegovnia.

Karlovac, work of agricultural society

at, 27-8.
Kisinan, Central Union at, 59.
Klagenfurt, plebiscite for possession of,

4.
Koradca, cooperative sodeties in, 11 et

seq.

Land Registry and Surveying, Depart-
'nent of, in Rumania, 58.

Land system: of Bessarabia, 49; of
Rumania, 49-50; of Italy, 91-2.

League of Producers Sodeties, work of,
in Genoa, 71.

Lega Nazionale delle Cooperative, 73.

Libraries: provided by Markovec Agri-
cultural Sodety, 18; by Bukovec Credit
Sodety, 24.

Livestodc insurance sodeties, in Serbia,
7.

Ljubljana (Laibach) : capital of Car-
niola, 4; cooperative sodeties in, 29
et seq.

lyoans: to cooperative sodeties, by cen-
tral bank at Belgrade, 7; to coopera-
tive sodeties by Cooperative Union of
Belgrade, 14; by Markovec Agricul-
tural Soidety to members, 17; by
Bukovec Credit Society, 24-5; by Bol

Cooperative Sodety, 34 ; by Central of
Rumania, 46-7; by People's Bank at
Oltenitza, 53.

Machinery societies: in Serbia, 7; work
of, in Slovenia, 29; in Dalmatia, 33;
in Rumania, 56.

Maize: raised in Serbia, 9; in Bukovec,
24; in Rumania, 47.

Mami, Professor, 93.

Markovec: invasion of, by Austria, 16;
work of agricultural society in, 16 et
seq.

Massarenti, 94.

Medical treatment, given by Markovec
Society, to members, 18.

Mezzadria system (land system), in
Italy, 91 et seq.

Milan: Sodalist consumers section head-
quarters in, 73 ; development of con-
sumers societies in, 75 ; system of
municipal supply in, 76-7; productive
societies in, 78 et seq.

Mill sodeties, number of, in Dalmatia,
33.

Milojavich, M., manager of Markovec
Agricultural Society, 19.

Mladenatz, G., 69.

Mladenovac, work of cooperative socie-
ties in, 10-11, 13.

Monopolies, Serbian government, of
salt and tobacco, 9.

Montenegro, 35.

Mortgage Credits, Department of Rural,
in Rumania, 58.

Municipal supply, system of, in Milan,
76-7.

Nish, 10, 16.

Oats: raised in Serbia, 9; in Bukovec,
24; in Rumania, 47.

Oil-making societies, number of, in Dal-
matia, 33.

Oltenitza: farming sodety at, 51-2; Peo-
ple's Bank at, 52 et seq.; Federation
at, 56.

Osijeh, credit sodiety in, 19-20.

People's Bank: of Rumania, 45 et seq.;
losses of, due to War, 59.

Perfume sodeties, number of, in Dal-
matia, 33.

Plums, raised in Serbia, 9.

Population: of Serbia, 3; of Slavonia
and Croatia, 4; of Carinthia and Car-
niola, 4; of Dalmatia, 4; of Bosnia
and Herzegovina, 5 ; of Rumania, 56.

Porters society, in Ljubljana, 30.

Poultry sodety, in Ljubljana, 30.

Pravila Nakupovalne Zadruga, coopera-
tive union at Ljubljana, 32-3 ; 43.

Printers productive societies: work of,
in Ljubljana, 30; development of, in
Milan, 79 et seq.

INDEX

Productive socieries, types of, in Italy,
72-3 ; 79 et seq.

Profits: of Bukovec cooperative societies
(i911-19), 25-6; of Zagreb consum-
ers society (1914-19), 42; of Central
for Agricultural Cooperative Socie-
ties, 62; division of, of printers socie-
ty of Milan, 80-1.

Prohaska, Dr., of Rumania, secretary of
Union of Unions, 44.

Publishing societies, number of, in Dal-
matia, 33.

Raiifeisen banks and credit societies: in
Serbia, 5, 17; in Croatia, 22; in Slo-
venia, 29 ; in Bosnia and Herzegovina,
39 ; in Bessarabia, 58-9 ; in Rumania,
59.

Railroads, condition of, in Serbia, 9-10.

Reconstruction societies, of Venetia,
88-9.

Religion: of Serbia, 3; of Slavonia and
Croatia, 4; of Carinthia and Carniola,
4; of Dalmatia, 4; of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, 5.

Ricica, dairy society at, 27.

Rochdale plan, 26; used by Zagreb co-
operative society, 41.

Rome: 89; Socialist productive section
headquarters in, 73,

Rumania: character of cooperative
movement in, 2; work of cooperative
societies in, 45 et seq.

Rye, raised in Serbia, 9,

St. Ivan Zabno, cattle-breeding society
at, 28.

Sarajevo, 36-7 ; Croat cooperative union
at, 39, 43.

Schools, organized by Central of Ru-
mania, 58.

Schoolmasters society, work of, in
Ljubljana, 32.

Schulze-Delitzsch : bank, 17; coopera-
tive societies in Slovenia, 29 ; in Ru-
mania, 66.

Selo-Banja, Austrian invasion of, 14-15 ;
wine society at, 14 et seq.

Serbia: area, population and industries
of, 3-4; development of cooperative
societies of, 7; reorganization of co-
operative movement in, 8 ; crops of, 9 ;
work of cooperative societies of, 10
et seq.

Shipbuilding society: number of, in Dal-
matia, 33 ; of Genoa, 84.

Silk, produced in Serbia, 9.

Slavonia: area, population and indus-
tries of, 4.

Slovenia: types of cooperative societies
in, 6 ; work and development of co-
operative societies of, 29 et seq.

Smederevo, work of wine society in, 16.

Social service: by Markovec Agricultural

Society, 18; by People's Bank at 01-
tenitza, 53.

Socialist societies, in Rumania, 69; in
Italy, 73 et seq.

Split (Spalato), capital of Dalmatia, 4;
cooperative union at, 33.

Stonecutters societies, in Dalmatia, 33.

Store societies, in Bukovec, 24 et seq.

Styria, 4.

Supply societies: formation of, in Ser-
bia, 8; in Koracica, 11.

Susegana, work of reconstruction society
ar, 89-90.

Switzerland, cooperative movement in, 1.

Temesvar, 3, 64.

Threshing society, work of, in Koracica,

11-2.
Tisza, Count, 22.
Transport, condition of, in Serbia, 8 et

seq.
Transylvania, 58-9.

Treaties: of Berlin, 3; of Rapallo, 4, 33.
Treviso, headquarters of reconstruction

societies in, 88.
Triest, 26.

Unione Cooperativa, of Milan, 71, 75.

Unione Miiitari, of Rome, 71.

Union of Croatian Rural Cooperative

Societies, in Zagreb, 20-1.
Union of Serbian Cooperative Societies

of Belgrade : object of, 9 ; loans by, 14 ;

credit given by, 15 ; credit extended to

Markovec Agricultural Society by, 18.
Union of Serbian Rural Banks, 21-2.
Union of Unions, formation of, 43-4.
Unirea, wholesale society in Bucharest,

66-7.
Urban societies, 65 et seq.

Venetia, work of Catholic productive
societies in, 88 ^/ seq.

Walking stick and umbrella handle so-
ciety, work of, 81-2.

Wheat: raised in Serbia, 9; in Buko-
vec, 24; in Rumania, 47.

Wholesale societies, in Bucharest, 66 et
seq.

W'.ne societies: in Serbia, 7; in Selo-
Banja, 14-5; in Smederevo, 16; in Slo-
venia, 29 et seq.; in Dalmatia, 33 et
seq.

Zadruga Zveza, cooperative union of
Ljubljana, 29-30.

Zagreb (Agram) : 24; capital of Sla-
vonia and Croatia, 4—5 ; congress of
cooperative societies at, 20, 43 ; work
of cooperative societies of, 20-1, 41-2;
Agrarian Bank at, 20-1.

Zara, Italian control of, 4.

Zveza Slovenskih Zadruga, cooperative-
union of Ljubljana, 30.

"^ 000

716 AA6

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

Santa Barbara Cx>Ucgc Library
Santa Barbara, California

Return to desk from which borrowed.
This book u DUE on the last date stamped below.

iPRlfigTB -'.1

LD21-1UM-10,'48
(BniU4)47A

3^31>6
J]6

Coffey ^

Tlie cooperative

movement in Jugosla

VI a > Rumania and.

l !;ii:.:v;

■^■'

,'.VV, If Tili >-i

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Books

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "The cooperative movement in Jugoslavia, Rumania and north Italy during and after the world war"

See other formats