| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Citation | 15 & 16 Vict. c. 31 |
|---|---|
The Industrial and Provident Societies Partnership Act 1852, also known (somewhat unjustifiably) as Slaney's Act, [1] was a significant legislative landmark in the establishment of the co-operative movement in the United Kingdom.
Prior to 1852, co-operative societies had protected their members capital by registering under the Friendly Societies Act 1846. [2] However the act specified protection only for purchases, not for sales; so the co-operative societies were forced to use a legal fiction of dubious merit to cover themselves when selling, and it was this that brought home the need for a new statute to regularise their position. [3]
John Ludlow played an important role in promoting the Act of 1852. [4] He had initially proposed a comparable Bill for Whig passage in 1851; but was blocked by Henry Labouchere at the Board of Trade. [5] The following year Disraeli persuaded his colleagues that promoting such social reform would be politically advantageous for the Tories, as well as offering a route for working-class energies to be incorporated into society; [6] and the Bill passed into law.
The Act not only provided a legal framework for the co-operative movement, but also specified much of its future direction - for example laying down the principle that up to one-third of profits could be shared among members, the rest being used to build up the business. [7]
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the reign of Queen Victoria, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. Slightly different definitions are sometimes used. The era followed the Georgian era and preceded the Edwardian era, and its later half overlaps with the first part of the Belle Époque era of continental Europe.
Thomas Hughes was an English lawyer, judge, politician and author. He is most famous for his novel Tom Brown's School Days (1857), a semi-autobiographical work set at Rugby School, which Hughes had attended. It had a lesser-known sequel, Tom Brown at Oxford (1861).
The Anti–Corn Law League was a successful political movement in Great Britain aimed at the abolition of the unpopular Corn Laws, which protected landowners’ interests by levying taxes on imported wheat, thus raising the price of bread at a time when factory-owners were trying to cut wages. The League was a middle-class nationwide organisation that held many well-attended rallies on the premise that a crusade was needed to convince parliament to repeal the corn laws. Its long-term goals included the removal of feudal privileges, which it denounced as impeding progress, lowering economic well-being, and restricting freedom. The League played little role in the final act in 1846, when Sir Robert Peel led the successful battle for repeal. However, its experience provided a model that was widely adopted in Britain and other democratic nations to demonstrate the organisation of a political pressure group with the popular base.
A friendly society is a mutual association for the purposes of insurance, pensions, savings or cooperative banking. It is a mutual organization or benefit society composed of a body of people who join together for a common financial or social purpose. Before modern insurance and the welfare state, friendly societies provided financial and social services to individuals, often according to their religious, political, or trade affiliations. These societies are still widespread in many parts of the developing world, where they are referred to as ROSCAs, ASCAs, burial societies, chit funds, etc.
Mark Wainwright Todd is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Derbyshire from 1997 to 2010.
The Radicals were a loose parliamentary political grouping in Great Britain and Ireland in the early to mid-19th century who drew on earlier ideas of radicalism and helped to transform the Whigs into the Liberal Party.
Disestablishmentarianism is a movement to end the Church of England's status as an official church of the United Kingdom.
An industrial and provident society (IPS) is a body corporate registered for carrying on any industries, businesses, or trades specified in or authorised by its rules.
Edward Vansittart Neale (1810–1892) was an English barrister, cooperator, and Christian socialist.
Midlands Co-operative Society Limited was the second largest consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom. It was a registered Industrial and Provident Society, a member of the Co-operative Union, the Co-operative Retail Trading Group and a corporate member of The Co-operative Group, the largest consumer co-operative in the world. The Society had over 200 stores, principally trading in the English Midlands. Head office was located in Lichfield, Staffordshire.
An exempt charity is an institution established in England and Wales for charitable purposes which is exempt from registration with, and oversight by, the Charity Commission for England and Wales.
The Heart of England Co-operative Society is an independent consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom. Based in Coventry, the Society trades in the English counties of West Midlands, Warwickshire, Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.
The Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies and Credit Unions Act 2010 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that received royal assent on 18 March 2010.
The Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1965 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that regulated industrial and provident societies in Great Britain and the Channel Islands.
Robert Aglionby Slaney was a British barrister and Whig politician from Shropshire. He sat in the House of Commons as a Member of Parliament for the borough of Shrewsbury for most of the period from 1826 until his death in 1862.
Sir Edward William Brabrook was an English civil servant, author, and anthropologist with a special interest in folklore. He was a member of the Folklore Society and a fellow of Society of Antiquaries of London and was awarded the silver Guy Medal in 1909.
Credit unions in the United Kingdom were first established in the 1960s. Credit unions are member-owned financial cooperatives operated for the purpose of promoting thrift, providing credit and other financial services to their members.
Hornsey (FIA) Co-operative Credit Union Limited was a savings and loans co-operative, established in the Municipal Borough of Hornsey, now part of the London Borough of Haringey, in 1964. One of the earliest credit unions in the United Kingdom, it merged with London Capital Credit Union in 2013.
The Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014 (c.14) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It consolidates existing legislation relating to industrial and provident societies, as well as introducing some reforms.
William Cooper was an English co-operator, Owenite, and a founding member of the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers.
