Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers definition of Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers, one of the first consumers' cooperatives, founded in 1844 in Rochdale, England, by 28 Lancashire weavers. Influenced by the theories of Robert Owen Owen, Robert, 1771–1858, British social reformer and socialist, pioneer in the cooperative movement. The son of a saddler, he had little formal education but was a zealous reader.
..... Click the link for more information. , they opened a grocery store that was so successful that they were able to establish a cooperative factory and textile mill (see cooperative movements cooperative movement, series of organized activities that began in the 19th cent. in Great Britain and later spread to most countries of the world, whereby people organize themselves around a common goal, usually economic.
..... Click the link for more information. ). Their rules combined a fixed interest on capital with a distribution of profits in proportion to purchases. This has remained the basic structure of consumers' cooperatives.

Bibliography

See J. Reeves, A Century of Rochdale Co-operation, 1844–1944 (1944).