Introduction
Most people in Victorian England acknowledged that the condition of the working man was shocking. But how should it be improved? Some looked to Government for help, but others believed that working men of good heart should turn their backs on the powerful and help each other. As Miss Isa Nicholson of the Preston branch tells us here, that vision led to the first Co-operative Wholesale Store.
AT this time (1843) a Sunday afternoon debate used regularly to be held in the Rochdale Temperance or Chartist Reading-room. Here a small company of workers brought their anxieties and grievances, the chief subject of discussion being the problem of “How best to improve the condition of the people.”*
One Sunday a very earnest, well-informed man, called Charles Howarth, came to the meeting with a beaming face, and told them he had thought of a way of improving their condition. They were all eagerness to hear it, but when he suggested opening a shop, and buying goods wholesale and selling them retail to each other, they shook their heads. Cooperative shops had been tried several times, but had always come to grief. “My plan has never been tried,” said Charles Howarth. “Just listen, mates, while I explain; but tell me first what you think was the reason all those union shops failed?”
* The cost of living crisis was extreme. The Corn Laws, designed to protect the interests of Britain’s agricultural industry from overseas competition, were pushing up the price of basic commodities so high that some families in industrial towns were close to starvation. See The Repeal of the Corn Laws. Rochdale’s MP at the time was William Sharman Crawford (1780–1861), a Radical committed to Parliamentary reform who had signed the People’s Charter in 1838. Crawford was a close associate of Richard Cobden (1804-1865), leader of the campaign against the Corn Laws and MP for Rochdale from 1859 to 1865.
Précis
In 1843, a group of working men met in Rochdale to discuss the challenges posed by the cost of living. Many ideas were shared, including a proposal from Charles Howarth to establish a co-operative store. Howarth admitted that earlier ventures of this sort had not fared well, but he assured the others that his vision was different. (57 / 60 words)
In 1843, a group of working men met in Rochdale to discuss the challenges posed by the cost of living. Many ideas were shared, including a proposal from Charles Howarth to establish a co-operative store. Howarth admitted that earlier ventures of this sort had not fared well, but he assured the others that his vision was different.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: because, despite, just, must, or, whereas, whether, who.
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