ABSTRACT
The great trading success of the new Co-operative Movement had, among other effects, that of cutting it off sharply from other forms of working-class organisation. The history of the movement was already strewn with the wrecks of abortive wholesale organisations. The Industrial and Provident Societies Acts of 1852, 1855 and 1862 at length gave the security that was needed, and endowed the Co-operative Movement with a legal position which has not greatly changed to-day. While, however, the acute pressure lor more capital tor industrial development was relaxed, and capitalists both became less "abstinent" and paid rather higher wages, they did not cease to preach the virtue of abstinence to their employees. We find, moreover, that the House of Commons, now dominated by industrial and commercial interests, is eager to give a helping hand to working-class thrift, and therefore encourages these developments with a mass of protective legislation.
