The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers
one of the first consumers’ cooperatives, founded in 1844 in Rochdale, England, by 28 Lancashire weavers. Influenced by the theories of Robert Owen, they opened a grocery store that was so successful that they were able to establish a cooperative factory and textile mill (see cooperative movements). Their rules combined a fixed interest on capital with a distribution of profits in proportion to purchases. This has remained the basic structure of consumers’ cooperatives.
