Industrial and Provident Societies Partnership Act 1852

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Industrial and Provident Societies Act 1852
Act of Parliament
Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (variant 1, 1952-2022).svg
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.

Contents

Background

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]

Passage

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]

See also

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References

  1. C Raven, Christian Socialism, 1848-1854 (1968) p. 289
  2. E Halévy, Victorian Years (London 1961) p. 267
  3. E Halévy, Victorian Years (London 1961) p. 267
  4. I. Ousby ed, The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English (Cambridge 1995) p. 176
  5. E Halévy, Victorian Years (London 1961) p. 263
  6. M Brasher, Arguments in History: 19th C Britain (1968) p. 146
  7. D McDonnell, Democratic Enterprises (2012) p. 70

Further reading