ABSTRACT
The Christian Socialist campaign centred around the twin objectives of the removal of any of the existing legal impediments to the establishment of working class co-operatives, and to have these co-operatives, once constituted, conferred with limited liability. The more often co-operatives failed, the more strident became the voice of those in the Christian Socialist camp calling for the introduction of a measure that would allow such undertakings to assume corporate status and the cloak of limited liability. Encouragement would thereby be given to replace the prevailing values of self-interest and avarice with a revived collectivist ethos based on Christian values. Sections of the Christian Socialist Movement therefore became interested in the introduction of special legislation to provide a facilitative framework within which experimentation with co-operatives could continue. Ludlow was one of those in the Christian Socialist Movement determined to stress the essentially Christian and spiritual nature of projects such as co-operative ventures over their purely secular and materialist implications.
