ABSTRACT
The British Empire also became an important focus of wholesale activity, especially Canada, Australia and New Zealand. This was again prompted by commercial aims and ideological commitment, though in this case it also reflected efforts by the British state to redefine its relations with its Empire in a context of increasing resistance to British rule in India and a continuing drift of the ‘white dominions’ towards independence. The Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS) Bank also played a vital role in another major area of wholesale commercial expansion in the 1920s: with the British Empire Dominions of New Zealand and Australia. The Co-operative News and the Producer carried numerous articles and reports of activities that hailed the benefits and contributions of co-operative trade for the Empire. The advance of both consumer and producers’ co-operation in Australia persuaded CWS that it might be most effective to work through emergent Australian co-operatives to access the Australian market for both exports and imports.
