THE FIRST YEAR.
GLASGOW IN THE ’SIXTIES—THE SOCIETY FORMED—MEN WHO WROUGHT—THE FIRST
BAKERY—STARTING BUSINESS—A DISASTER AVOIDED—BETTER PROSPECTS—A
MANAGER APPOINTED—LARGER PREMISES WANTED—SOMETHING ATTEMPTED,
SOMETHING DONE.
In the ’sixties of last century Glasgow was not a pleasant place for
working men to live in. The city was contained in the four parishes of
Barony, City, Govan, and Gorbals; only a small proportion of its
population being resident in the last-named parish, however. The
conditions of life for the workers were not good. Houses were small and
inconvenient, disease was rampant, and poverty the common lot. There
were 87,604 inhabited houses in the city in the year 1864, and of these
35,788 were rented at £5 per annum, or under; the average rental being
£3, 7s. 3d. Other 35,393 houses had rentals of between £5 and £10, the
average rental being £6, 17s. 3d., and the average rental of these
71,181 houses, forming 81·75 per cent. of the total housing
accommodation of the city, was £5, 5s. per annum. Further light is
thrown on the housing conditions by the fact that, while the aggregate
rental for these 71,181 houses was £373,441, the aggregate rental for
the remaining 16,423 houses was £502,687; an average rental per house of
£30, 10s. The proportions of these lowly-rented houses were fairly equal
in all four parishes, and even when allowance is made for the fact that
rents were much lower in those days than they have been in recent years
for similar accommodation it is evident that the housing conditions left
much to be desired, and that the “homes of the people” must have been
veritable hotbeds of disease. In the statistics consulted the proportion
of one-apartment houses is not given, but in view of the whole-hearted
condemnation of such houses voiced by Dr Russell, Medical Officer of
Health for Glasgow, twenty years later, and the large proportion of
Glasgow’s citizens who were then living in houses which were kitchen,
parlour, bedroom, and washhouse all in one, it is easy to believe that
the houses of the earlier period were no better than the low rentals
would warrant.
Further evidence of the correctness of this assumption is found in the
vital statistics of the period. In 1864 the deaths of children under
five years of age were 46·93 per cent. of the total deaths; in 1862 they
had been 48·85 per cent. of the total. In those years the children were
dying at the rate of one in every nine of the population, a deathrate
nearly equal to that of the British Army during the four years of war.
The effects of poverty and bad housing on the health of the population
were further evidenced by the number of deaths of children under five
from tubercular diseases. In 1863 these were 381; in 1864, 378; while
the total deaths from tuberculosis were 1562 and 1763 respectively for
the same years. In his report to the Corporation for the year 1864, Mr
Watson, Town Chamberlain, points out that there was ample scope in the
statistics he had compiled for showing the need for benevolence “in
alleviating the character of the dwellings of the very poor,” and he
urged the need which existed to provide other and better houses. At the
same time he notes that employment generally was good in this year. In
1868, 786 children under five died from consumption, and in 1869 the
total infantile deathrate (children under one year) was 48·20 per 1,000.
In the Clyde area it was 56·81 per 1,000.
It was in a city in which the conditions of the people were such as the
figures quoted above reveal that, on the last Monday in January 1869,
what was destined in the course of fifty years to become the largest
business of its kind in the world opened its doors for trade. For six
years the idea of the federation of Co-operative societies for trading
purposes had been occupying the minds of the Co-operators of Scotland,
keenly interested as they were in the progress of the North of England
Co-operative Wholesale Society. Only a little over two years before,
also, those of them in the West who took an interest in the affairs of
their Co-operative neighbours had seen the Co-operative societies of
Ayrshire join together to form a baking association for the purpose of
supplying themselves with bread; and in September 1868 the Scottish
Co-operative Wholesale Society had been safely launched, after several
years of anxious consultation and consideration. No sooner had the
S.C.W.S. been sent on its way than the stalwarts of the West turned
their attention to yet another venture. Since the collapse of the second
Glasgow Society there had been no Co-operatively-produced bread in the
city. The price which was being charged for bread by the private bakers
was considered too high, and yet not one of the societies thought itself
strong enough to finance a bakery of its own.
They had faith in the Co-operative principle, however, and what they
could not do as individuals they fancied they would be able to do in
combination. They reasoned that, if a number of people by combining
together could procure the goods they needed more cheaply than any one
of them alone could do, there was no good reason why a number of
societies by combining together could not do what no one of them acting
alone was strong enough to do.
It is to Mr Gabriel Thomson of St Rollox Society, then treasurer of the
newly formed S.C.W.S., that the honour of first bringing the idea of a
federated bakery publicly before the co-operators of the West belongs.
The first idea was that the work should be undertaken by the
recently-formed Wholesale Society, but a little consideration showed
that this plan was hardly feasible. It was thought that it would
scarcely be right to adventure the capital of societies scattered all
over Scotland in an undertaking from which many of them could not
possibly derive any direct benefit, and so this idea was dropped, and
finally it was decided to start a federated baking society.
In the new venture St Rollox Society was the prime mover. In those days
the men who controlled St Rollox Society believed in the infinite
possibilities of the application of Co-operative principles. They were
joined with other Glasgow societies in a drapery federation. They took
up shares in the St Rollox Cooperage Society, in the Ironworks, and in
the Oakmill Society, each as it arose, and to Co-operation they looked
for escape from the exactions of the master bakers of Glasgow. A meeting
was convened by them in the month of October 1868, and to that meeting
Mr Gabriel Thomson read a paper on “Federation,” in which he dealt at
length with the principle as it could be applied to the baking of bread.
This paper so strongly influenced the delegates that there and then they
approved of the principle, and went back to their societies to report.
In a few weeks another meeting was called, which was attended by
representatives from Barrhead, St Rollox, Paisley Provident, Paisley
Equitable, Glasgow Eastern, Anderston, Parkhead, Johnstone, Howwood,
Glasgow Southern, Motherwell, Lennoxtown, and others. At this meeting
the proposal was discussed further, and at the close the delegates
pledged themselves to go back to their societies and do all in their
power to get these to take part in the formation of the federation.
THE SOCIETY FORMED.
A third meeting was held a fortnight later, and at this meeting eight
societies intimated their willingness to join in forming the Federation.
These were Anderston, Barrhead, Cathcart, Johnstone, Lennoxtown,
Motherwell, St Rollox, and Thornliebank. An interim committee was
formed, consisting of Messrs Gabriel Thomson and John West (St Rollox),
James Borrowman and Alexander Douglas (Anderston), James Ferguson and
Alexander Johnstone (Barrhead), and Joseph Gibb and Donald Cameron
(Thornliebank). Three of their number—Messrs Thomson, Borrowman, and
Cameron—were appointed a sub-committee to look out for suitable
premises, consider the working of the bakery and the delivery of the
bread, and report to a future meeting.
No better men could have been selected for the task. Mr Thomson was the
originator of the scheme, and was also the treasurer of the S.C.W.S. Mr
Borrowman had already made a name for himself as the most powerful
advocate of Co-operation that Scotland had produced. He had taken a
leading part in establishing the S.C.W.S., and was now its manager;
while Mr Cameron was not only a shrewd and earnest Co-operator, but
appears also to have had some knowledge of the baking trade. We can well
imagine the zeal and earnestness with which they set about their task.
They knew that they were setting out on a journey along an untrodden
path, but they had a faith which lighted up the dark places before them,
and a determination to see the mission on which they had entered, the
first step to the fulfilment of their hopes, accomplished as soon as
possible. Inside two weeks they were back to the parent committee, their
task accomplished, bringing with them particulars of a bakehouse which
they thought would suit the requirements of the new society, a scheme
for carrying on the business, and particulars about methods of delivery.
Their report was approved, the bakery at 52 South Coburg Street was
leased, and instructions were given for its immediate repair.
The minute of committee, the first minute of the new Society, is as
follows:—
“_16th January 1869._
“A meeting was convened to-day to hear the report of the committee
in the office of the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society. At
this meeting the following societies were represented—Barrhead, St
Rollox, Anderston, Eastern, Motherwell, Dalziel, Cadder, and
Thornliebank. A report was submitted by the committee stating that
premises had been secured and that they were convinced that the
business would pay well, and recommended an immediate start. The
report was accepted and the following sub-committee was appointed to
carry out the resolution—viz., Gabriel Thomson, president; John
West, treasurer; James Borrowman, secretary; and Alexander Douglas.
Same committee to get the rules printed in accordance with the
alterations made on the Ayrshire United Co-operative Societies
Baking Association, and submit the same to the general meeting of
the delegates before registration.”
All that now remained to be done was to get the bakery into working
order, and ten days sufficed to have this work completed. Meantime,
however, the committee were not idle. Vans had to be procured and other
details of the work inside and outside seen to, and bakers had to be
employed. The committee met on 23rd January, and appointed a Mr Currie
as foreman baker, while on 6th February they decided to purchase a
second van at a cost of £18 and a horse for a similar sum. A vanman was
also engaged at a wage of 20/ a week.
These little details are all in the minutes, but no mention of the
situation of the bakery appears therein, nor is there any mention made
of the date of beginning business. These old-time Co-operators were so
engrossed in the work they were doing that they had no thought for the
people who would come after them, eager for information about what they
had done and how they had done it. It would appear from the minute book
itself that it was written up at a date later than the beginning of the
Society, probably from notes made by Mr Borrowman at the time, and this
may account for the omission of any mention of the date of beginning
business or of the location of the bakery.
We know, however, that the bakery was situated in South Coburg Street, a
street which connected Bedford Street with Norfolk Street, parallel with
and immediately behind Eglinton Street. The buildings in this street are
evidently much older than those of Eglinton Street. The site of the
first premises of the U.C.B.S. is now covered by a part of the Coliseum
theatre. Here, in this small place, the modest beginning was made on the
morning of 26th January 1869. One is curious as to the quantity turned
out in this first baking, but that is a matter on which all records are
silent. Occasionally we are told of the purchase of flour and of the
price which was paid for it, but for some time no mention is made of the
quantity baked into bread. At that time the secretary was a very busy
man. Not only was he during these first few months virtual manager of
the bakery, but he was also the manager of the S.C.W.S., and he had his
hands full of work.
Although the minutes are silent on some phases of the work of the
committee, however, they are prolix enough on others. The wages of the
vanman are given, and at the same meeting—that of 6th February—we are
told that the wages of the foreman baker were fixed at 34/ a week. It
was also agreed at the same meeting that the bread be sold at current
retail price and that a discount of 10 per cent. be given. Three weeks
later the need for a larger van was being discussed, and at the next
meeting, held a week later, it was decided that a Parkhead van-builder
be given the order to build a van large enough to contain fifty dozen
loaves; and that another horse be purchased. A shop in connection with
the bakery had now been opened, and it was decided that the shop hours
should be from eight a.m. until seven p.m. The question of a weekly
half-holiday, presumably for the girl in the bread shop, was also
considered, but allowed to lie over. From the next minute it becomes
evident that the committee’s idea of the class of horse which was
required for the work of the Society had undergone some change during
their month’s experience, for whereas the first horse which they
purchased cost £18, they paid £40 for the next one.
At the beginning of the month the hours of the shop girl had been fixed
at from eight to seven, but on the 27th of the same month an alteration
was made, and it was agreed that the shop should open at 7·30 in the
morning and remain open until 7·30 at night. On Mondays it was to be
shut at 5 p.m. and on Saturdays to remain open until 9 p.m., while the
price of bread was fixed at 5½d. The committee were now finding that
they required stable and van room more than they had available, and
agreed to advertise for it. Evidently the shop girl found the 7.30 a.m.
start too early for her, for at a meeting of the committee held a
fortnight after the earlier opening of the shop had been decided on, the
minute records that she should “be spoken to about attending at her hour
in the morning.”
DIFFICULTIES BEGIN.
By this time the members of the committee were beginning to realise that
there were difficulties in running a baking business. Complaints had
been made that the bread was sour, and the foreman baker laid the blame
on a change of temperature. The explanation was quite likely to be the
correct one, although a foreman with an interest in his work might have
been expected to take precautions against such difficulties. The
committee were not long in discovering that this was just what their
foreman did not do. At the next meeting his attention was again called
to complaints about the bread. This time it was being sent out to the
shops in a dirty condition. He was also informed that the blend of
flours which he was using was costing too much, and the committee
decided that they should draft a statement of the proportions in which
the differently priced flours were to be used. It was also decided to
dismiss one of the vanmen on the ground that he was careless about his
work and his horse.
In the case of the baker matters went from bad to worse until, an
earlier historian[1] tells us, he struck work altogether. The committee
for some time had been in constant fear that some morning the ovens
would be found cold, or else that the bread would be burnt black, and
the crisis came when, at 11 p.m. one Thursday toward the end of May, the
president was aroused from sleep to receive the intelligence that the
Baking Society had given up business. This was serious news; but sure
enough, when he had hurriedly dressed himself and made his way with all
speed to Coburg Street, he found the bakery in darkness. Mr Borrowman
was next awakened, and told the doleful tidings. Both gentlemen hurried
to the foreman’s house to discover that happy-go-lucky individual
soundly asleep, careless that hungry Co-operators would be breadless in
the morning. He was induced to go to work, and next day the committee
were hastily summoned, only to discover that the foreman was tired of
his job, and had fully made up his mind that he was going to be
responsible no longer for supplying Co-operators with the staff of life.
The committee were at their wits end, but there was nothing for it but
to get another baker. Here the minutes take up the story. The committee
at their meeting spoke to the foreman about the loss on the first
quarter’s working, which amounted to £37. His reply was to the effect
that he never expected to make a profit the first quarter. They then
spoke to him of the numerous complaints which were being received with
reference to the quality of the bread, and he replied that as he was
unable to do better the best thing he could do was to resign. His
resignation was accepted, and after very considerable difficulty another
man was found to take his place; but he only remained a week or two, and
ultimately, in June, another man was procured who was able to do better.
No balance-sheet was printed for any of the quarters in the first year,
but a written statement, showing the position of the Society, was sent
to each member. The first quarterly meeting was held on 29th May, when
the rules were adopted. Mr Gabriel Thomson was elected president; Mr
John West (St Rollox Society), treasurer; Mr James Borrowman (Anderston
Society), secretary; and Messrs James Ferguson (Barrhead), Joseph Gibb
(Thornliebank), Alexander Douglas (Anderston), and Weir (Motherwell) as
committee. It was also agreed that the secretary be paid £1, 10s. and
the treasurer £2 quarterly.
Footnote 1:
The United Co-operative Society Year Book, 1896.
With the appointment of a new foreman the bakery was now running more
smoothly than during the first quarter, but it was not yet paying its
way, for the minute of 29th June records the fact that the loss at that
date was £25. The explanation of this position, as given by the
secretary, was that a liability of £4, 15s. had not been taken into
account at the last balance, some flour which had been bought had not
been used when the price fell, and this had entailed a loss of £6, 10s.
An encouraging feature, however, was a report given by the new foreman
which showed that a profit had been made in each of the two weeks with
which it dealt. The sales were also rising, but the committee were not
satisfied with the trade the Society was doing, and were desirous that
the turnover should be raised to sixty sacks or seventy sacks a week, as
they thought that with such a turnover they would have a good profit. As
a preliminary step to securing this turnover they determined to send out
several of their number as missionaries to societies which had not yet
joined, with the object of getting them to do so, or, at least, to
purchase their bread from the Society. Amongst other minor difficulties
with which the committee were being faced at this time was the lack of
suitable stabling for their horses. Their stable was too small, and it
was unhealthy. It is true that horses were not very costly, but neither
was money too plentiful, and they could not afford to run any risks. One
of the horses which they had bought in the beginning of the year was
ill, and had to be sold for £6. A decline of £12 in the value of a horse
inside a few months was evidence that there was something wrong
somewhere, but suitable stabling was difficult to secure.
A MANAGER APPOINTED.
In the minutes the most important things sometimes crop up in the most
casual manner. At a meeting of the committee which was held on 18th
September, one of the principal themes of the evening’s discussion was
the purchasing of new horses. A horse was to be returned as unsuitable,
and another horse priced at £30 was to be taken on trial, as it would
not suit the committee that anything should be paid to the owner as “rue
bargain.” Then, quite casually, the minute goes on to mention that “the
engaging of Mr Sturrock as manager of the Baking Society was then gone
into.” This is the first mention made in the minutes of the proposal to
appoint a manager; but, from the document which had been prepared and
which was transcribed into the minute of the meeting, it is evident that
the subject had been under consideration for some time. It is
interesting to note in this agreement that “the manager was not to
exceed 3/ for baking and firing.” He was to determine “the quality and
also the maker’s flour he shall use, but the committee reserve the right
to prevent the price of flour used any week exceeding the average price
of extra flour.” He was to keep the accounts of the Society, and prepare
weekly statements which would give
“the number of sacks baked and also the cost of the flour and other
materials, wages, rent, cost of horse-keep, etc., giving the total
of the whole, with a statement of the number of loaves baked from
each sack, the total number of dozens of loaves produced, with
smallbread; also the cash value of the loaves and smallbread added
and the expense with the cost deducted, showing clear profit; also a
statement showing the number of dozens of loaves and smallbread sent
to each society, with the number left on hand at the end of each
week.”
The pay of the manager was fixed at 35/ per week until the Society was
able to pay a bonus of sixpence per £, when his wages were to be
advanced to 40/ per week.
Already the directors were beginning to find that if it was difficult to
sell as much bread as they desired, it was equally difficult sometimes
to get payment for the bread they did sell. There was hardly one of the
Glasgow societies but had to struggle hard to keep going at all. Of all
those societies in the city to which the new venture must look for its
best support there were not more than two which emerged safely from the
struggles of those early days, and those two survived only because the
men in charge of them refused to recognise defeat and kept going even
against the advice of the friends who foresaw in a longer struggle but
greater disaster. Of the eight societies which had joined in the
formation of the Federation only two were pursuing smoothly the even
tenor of their way, free from the irritating worries produced by the
difficulty of making ends meet. These two societies—Thornliebank and
Barrhead—were associated with the Bakery from the very first meeting,
and being successful they were in a position to pay their way promptly;
but some of the others were not so fortunate, and so, in October of the
first year, we find the manager being instructed by the committee to
write to the societies and point out to them that as the capital was
limited it would be an advantage if payment was made promptly when the
accounts were rendered. Frequently during the next few years the same
complaint crops up, and there were times when the Society was owing the
S.C.W.S. large sums of money which at the moment it was quite unable to
pay because of the fact that the societies were not paying promptly for
the goods they received.
The third quarterly meeting took place on 4th December. Although there
is nothing about it in earlier minutes, a hint is given that the
committee or the manager had not been keeping to the strict line of
instructions given at the August quarterly meeting, for a motion is
agreed to “that the alteration in the price of bread take place on the
same day as the Glasgow prices.” A profit had been made on the quarter’s
transactions, but it was not large enough to divide, and the delegates
gave authority to the committee “to apply it to redeem fixed stock.”
About this time the Society was having trouble with the quality of flour
purchased. The flour was returned, and the manager was authorised to
cancel the order if that sent in exchange was not of better quality. The
committee at the close of their first year were discussing the necessity
of getting more ovens, as the old bakery was quite inadequate to meet
the trade which was being done. It was agreed to endeavour to get other
two ovens; and, failing that solution of the difficulty, to see if a
nightshift could be employed. Later minutes are silent as to how the
difficulty was overcome during the three months which elapsed ere the
new bakery in St James Street, Kinning Park, was ready for occupation.
SOMETHING ATTEMPTED, SOMETHING DONE.
During the first year the committee had been feeling their way. They had
met and overcome many difficulties, some of which, like the incident of
the chairman and secretary hunting up a recalcitrant baker in the small
hours of the morning in order to induce him to go to work, have a
humorous enough aspect when viewed at a distance of fifty years, but
must have seemed tragic to the actors, for the whole future of the
infant venture would seem bound up in an unbroken sequence of bread
deliveries. For the first year the committee met in the premises of the
S.C.W.S. in Madeira Court. Usually the meeting place was the warehouse,
for the room in which Mr Borrowman worked was but small, although it
possessed the only window in the place. There they fitted up a temporary
table, using boxes for seats. Indeed, so long as Mr Borrowman continued
secretary of the Baking Society, the committee continued to meet
frequently in the Wholesale’s premises, although the sub-committee
usually met in a small room, 10 ft. by 6 ft., fitted up in the bakery
premises at St James Street. At times the full committee of sixteen met
here also, packed together like herrings. Such were the conditions to
which those heroes of the Co-operative vanguard accommodated themselves
in order that the cause they had at heart might prosper.
During the first year the Society had baked 2,116 sacks of flour,
equivalent to an average turnover of 40¾ sacks per week; but as the
turnover during the latter part of the year was approximately 70 sacks
per week, it must have been much less than 40 at the beginning. For the
first six months losses amounting to £62, 10s. had been made, but in the
second six months these losses had been wiped out, the fittings had been
depreciated by over £30, and although no dividend was declared they had
a balance of surplus to carry forward which amounted to £23, 3s. 1d. The
value of the goods sold during the year had been £5,081, 13s. 6d.; the
value of the fixed and live stock was £243, 15s. 8d.; and the value of
their building, as shown in the balance-sheet, £110, 9s. 6d. The
societies held share capital amounting to £193, 12s. and loan capital
amounting to £145, and £10, 6s. 1d. had been paid as interest. Thus the
position was quite good. The corner had been turned; a surplus was being
shown most weeks, and the directors were assured that with careful
nursing and a steady influx of trade prosperity was in sight. Many rocky
headlands had yet to be weathered, many shoals avoided, adverse winds
and tides overcome, ere their bark reached the wide open sea of
prosperity; but the mariners were shrewd and careful, and although for
one reason and another several changes of captain and even of crew took
place, the new crews and the new captains sailed their ship always with
the skill of the old and, successfully overcoming all difficulties, were
at last wafted by fair winds over a smooth sea.