History of the United Co-operative Baking Society Ltd. : $b A fifty years' record 1869–1919Reid, William
History
History of the United Co-operative Baking Society Ltd. : $b A fifty years' record 1869–1919
Reid, William
United Co-operative Baking Society, Ltd., Glasgow
At the quarterly meeting held in June 1884, some reorganisation of the
work of the office took place. As a preliminary step, the office of
treasurer to the Society was abolished. With the exception of a short
period at the beginning, this office had been held by two men—Mr
Alexander of Paisley and Mr M‘Murran of Glasgow Eastern Society. At the
meeting at which the office of treasurer was abolished, an attempt was
made to make all the capital of the Society transferable, but this
proposal was defeated by a narrow majority; fifty-eight delegates voting
for the proposal and thirty-two against it. As a two-thirds majority was
necessary, the vote in favour was six short of the necessary number.
TRANSFERABLE CAPITAL.
During the summer of 1884 the Society was experimenting with a new form
of barm, produced by a patent process. The results of the experiments,
however, were not satisfactory. The new barm was found to be no
improvement on the old, while the recipe would cost £5, and thereafter
there was to be a royalty of a halfpenny per sack of flour used, which
was to continue for a year, so the committee decided that no advantage
would accrue to the Society by adopting the new system. About the same
time the committee were in correspondence with Mr E. V. Neale on the
question of the best method to be adopted for making the loan capital of
the Society secure. They considered the information they received from
Mr Neale so valuable that they decided to print it and send a copy to
each member society.
Notwithstanding the difficulties with which they were meeting,
consequent on their shortage of oven accommodation, the committee were
ever zealous in their endeavours to get new trade from societies which
were not members and to increase the trade of those which were. During
the summer months they caused a number of letters to be sent to
societies, requesting that deputations should be received, and by this
means they were able to secure increased trade from some of the
societies which were not as loyal as they might have been. Arising out
of the correspondence with Mr Neale, it was agreed at the September
quarterly meeting in 1884 to appoint a special committee to go into the
whole question of the capital of the Society, with special reference to
that held on loan, and with power to consult a Scottish legal authority
on the subject, the committee to report to the December quarterly
meeting. The special committee consulted the Lord Advocate on the
subject, with the result that, at a special meeting which was held in
March of the following year, the whole share capital of the Society was
made transferable, while the interest on loans was reduced from 5 per
cent. to 4½ per cent.
STILL FURTHER EXTENSIONS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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