136
but in this respect the demands are also higher, Uie operativesrequiring better accommodation.
Taken generally, the operative only succeeded by co-operation inbenefiting by the lowering of prices. The majority of the cottonoperatives of Lancashire are members of the co-operative stores.What a small advance on wholesale prices the operative in buyingretail has to pay I determined in the summer of 1891 for the chiefseats of the English textile industry. Since the co-operativesocieties mostly pay back 10 per cent, dividend, their selling pricesto-day are not tower than those of the retail shopkeepers, whoseprofits have been considerably cut down by the flourishing of co-operative societies. Let us follow a pound of wheat on its wayfrom the merchant in Liverpool to the operative’s home. Thesolo intermediaries are the co-operative corn mills and localsocieties. The prices of these latter societies are fairly equalthroughout the whole of the North of England. In order, how-ever, not to err on the side of cheapness, I expressly choose asociety which is a considerable distance from the corn mill, so thatthe cost of carriage is included in the price: —
Oldham.
DarwknCo-op. Society.
Consumers'respective averageprice per lb. flour.Pence.
1*47
1883
Wholesale averageprice of the wheatbought, per lb.
Pence.
1 09
Selling priceof flour at the corn-mill, per lb.
Pence.
1'42
1884
0-94
1-27
1-32
1885
0-85
1T3
118
1886
0-82
109
1-14
1887
0-87
1T0
1T5
1888
0-86
107
112
1880
0-83
1-08
T13
The prices of a pound of flour were very little higher in Bradford,the seat of the woollen industry. Thus in 1889 and 1890 a pound offlour cost, on the average, 1*3Id. The lowness of these pricescomes so much the more into account since the operatives receive7A to 10 per cent, on the amount of their buyings from the co-operative societies. But wheat flour is at present the most im-portant food of the English operative. In the North of Englandit is baked at home by the wife. The price of bread, which isseldom bought in Lancashire ', amounts to Ad. per lb more than theprice of the flour.