ABSTRACT
The 1860s and 1870s were years of continued expansion for retail co-operation, and G. D. H. Cole provides a useful survey of the main areas of growth and activity. The map showing the existence of co-operative societies, which G. D. H. Cole provided in his A century of co-operation to illustrate the position in England and Scotland before 1844, shows well over a hundred societies. The 1860s and 1870s were years of continued expansion for retail co-operation, and G. D. H. Cole provides a useful survey of the main areas of growth and activity. Cole was a guild socialist, with a special interest in worker control in industry, and this perhaps explains his obvious interest in productive co-operatives and profit-sharing. Rochdale provided a good example of educational practice, but in other branches the 2.5 per cent provision was quietly ignored. In the 1880s renewed efforts were made to encourage educational activities.
