ABSTRACT
To find financial resources for the formation of capital is a fundamental problem for any company, but producer cooperatives have their own peculiar problems to cope with. Firstly, cooperatives rarely have sufficient assets of their own to present as collateral, so that commercial banks are not eager to provide the short, medium or long-term credits which are indispensable for the smooth operation, let alone development, of factories. Furthermore, legal restrictions often make it difficult for cooperatives to obtain credits; for instance, access to a stock exchange is seldom possible. And finally, cooperatives have always been hesitant to apply for extensive credit, fearing that their independence might be put in jeopardy. In Draheim’s opinion, therefore, the acquisition of finance is the greatest problem that producer cooperatives have to face, being likely to impede their development and compelling them to remain small and medium-sized enterprises, mostly in labour-intensive branches of industry (SWOV 1979: 25–116; van Dooren 1978: 129–53).
