Agricultural co-operation in the UK: A historical review

Abstract

This paper traces the development of the agricultural co-operative movement in the UK from its origins in the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. It stresses that an unfavourable policy environment in the 1920s and 1930s stultified the early and promising growth of the movement. Moreover, it suggests that only in the past two decades has there been a shift in policy emphasis toward the encouragement of agricultural co-operation and that co-operative business has expanded substantially in the most recent decade via the assistance of UK and EC grant aid.