The main needs historically addressed by traditional cooperative models

Cooperatives in Europe The Cooperative Movement has its roots in the economic and political circumstances of the early part of the nineteenth century. The industrial revolution in reshaping the nature of society created many problems and challenges. The development of political ideas and movements in this period gave ordinary people the encouragement and opportunity to organize aspects of their lives. This development, although now primarily equated with the Chartists, was about more than just demanding the vote; the objective was very much about changing the world not in dreams but in practical realities. One real practical reality was the difficulty many ordinary families experienced in obtaining food of acceptable quality at fair prices. The development of shops did not keep pace with the growth of the new industrial communities, and unscrupulous shopkeepers maintained a monopoly of trade in their localities. So the need and ability to organize, together with the social needs and self-help values of the Victorian age, became combined in the co-operative movement, which was to revolutionize retailing during the century ahead. Traditional cooperative models were born in the first part of nineteenth century in various European countries and they began to emerge, rapidly sketching four different organizational models according to particularities found in each country as follows: 1. The economic, politic and social context in France characterized by the new born utopist socialism ideology and a low level of industry development was the most proper background for the apparition of work cooperatives. These cooperatives attempted to provide a solution to the serious problem of high unemployment. They took as their models the ateliers nationaux, public laboratories inspired by utopian socialisms ideas in which unemployed urban workers were given employment in carrying out useful public works. Thanks to incentives provided by the decree laws of 1848, many cooperatives were founded. 2. The UK was the birthplace of consumer cooperatives. Here in the middle of XIXth Century, 28 textile weavers from Rochdale (a town north of Manchester where strikes by the weavers had failed to have any lasting effect on wages and living conditions) opened up the first cooperative shop. They sold the basic necessities of life to their members, butter candles, soap, flour and blankets. Their aim was to supply good quality goods, cheaply and to return any profit to members of the co-operative. These and the many others that followed (at the end of XIXth Century approximately a million Englishmen were already associated with consumer cooperatives) aimed to increase the buying power of urban workers, in a country in which early industrialization and urbanization had brought to the forefront the problem of low wages in the first half of the 19th Century. The activities of these cooperatives consisted of selling basic commodities of good quality at market prices to members, and distributing profits in the form of rebates proportionate to purchases. 3. Germany was first to establish cooperative credit unions. This country, at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, was still characterized by an un-innovative agricultural-based economy and dominated by small and medium farming enterprises. On this background, a visionary man named William Raiffeisen established in the Rhine Valley the first rural cooperative banks. Working in a small market (at most two villages), limiting credit to members (unlimited responsibility), and applying low interest rates, these sought to distribute the limited resources available in a way so as to facilitate investments and the modernization of the agricultural sector. On the basis of similar principles, but in an urban context, the first cooperative banks called popular banks were founded in around 1850, aiming to modernize small-scale enterprises and urban artisan guilds and to minimize the pressure of moneylenders. 4. Denmark was the birthplace for farmer cooperatives inspired by the Lutheran theologian and bishop Nicolas Frederich Grndtvigts. Around the end of XIX Century cooperative dairies were founded, followed by butchers and delicatessens. These soon hegemonized the sector by responding to the needs of the period and evolved to keep pace with economic changes right up until the present.

Cooperatives in Italy/Trentino Even the Italian cooperative movement was not dominated by any particular model it has shown an ability to take root in all sectors of the economy. In the long run, perhaps this is its most distinctive quality, consolidating the success of the cooperative movement in Italy by allowing the creation of business networks and joint operations among the various sectors. In this respect Trento and Trentino Region have a very special place on the Italian cooperatives map, as the history of the cooperative movement is quite overlap with the history of the Trentino people, who were able to rise up above their difficulties and wretchedness with a renewed spirit of solidarity and autonomy The social and economic framework in Trentino at the middle of the XIXth century was characterized by a strong crisis in agriculture, a slump in industry and considerable emigration from the valleys towards the cities, in order to survive. Agriculture had suffered because of the fragmentation of the land, the backwardness of the crops, floods and new diseases, such as blight and mildew in the vines or silkworm diseases. On the other hand, industry suffered from a condition of marginality. Further to the change in borders due to the wars of independence Trentino found itself unceremoniously passing from a central territory located in the south-eastern part of the empire, to one located on the border. This provoked a serious crisis in industry which had repercussion on the entire textile chain right through to the country, where the silkworm was reared. The displacement along the routes of communication in the valleys, which had previously crossed the alpine passes, set the economy of the entire valleys into a state of crisis. Emigration, then, became a cruel necessity for survival, with strong repercussions on the family unity and the community. In this context, the cooperative movement was a reaction to conditions of hunger, wretchedness and the wear and tear wrought by time: a downright peaceful, popular revolution. The founder of the cooperative movement in Trentino was a priest named Don Lorenzo Guetti. He founded the first consumer cooperative and adopted the name of Famiglia Cooperativa in order to prove the absence of speculative aims in the cooperative concern and also to stress how, just as in a family, the rights and duties of the individual must not be cancelled out due to the fact of being in a company. The name, furthermore, set out the climate of agreement and mutual aid that should exist in a family. A few years after the first Rural Bank was founded and Don Guetti was the curate in it. In view of the serious conditions of usury and loan-sharking and the difficulties of being granted loans, above all without having to give burdensome guarantees, the Rural Banks, credit unions, represented a formidable instrument in the rebirth of agriculture in Trentino and accumulation in favour of the local economy. Don Guetti was also one of the founders and the first chairman of the Cooperative Syndicates Federation, a structure established in order to create a sense of unity and, at the same time, create a sort of cooperative network. This was followed up by the formation of second degree syndicates, with the precise duty of coordinating and connecting the cooperative members on a sectorial basis There were also another priests among the first cooperative members, both because the cooperative movement was inspired by values such as solidarity and evangelical brotherhood, as well as because, living in close proximity with the poor, these country curates and parish priests were an important point of reference and inspired a sense of trust in an initiatives success. As a short conclusion we may underline that right from their beginnings cooperatives have shown to function well in many different sectors. In particular, thanks to mutual principles, they demonstrated an ability to create businesses where private initiative was lacking or not able to combine social and economic development.