In the boom years of 1873-75 the Oldham people registered 76 cotton spinning companies, many of whose initiators were co-operaters in the local district. In this paper the author finds the basic facts of the companies in the formative period with special reference to their managerial aspects. Main sources are the documents preserved in the Public Record Office and Company Registration Office as well as the local newspapers published in the district.
It seems significant that these so-called 'co-operative' companies had a distinct management ideology different from that of private companies. It was democracy. Stockholders of the companies were mostly the people associated with the cotton industry, especially the cotton spinners according to their occupation in the stockholders' list, many of whom were operative cotton spinners. Even the largest stockholders had two to three hundred stocks at most. Almost of all directors with twenty to fifty stocks had other jobs connected with cotton industry and in those days the articles of association strictly prohibited a company officer from taking a seat in the board. Strategic dicisions were usually made at the general meeting of stockholders after heated debates. In consequence, the meetings of the board tended to turn into a mere formality.
Many of the managerial features of the companies seem to have stemmed from the experiences of the management of co-operative societies. One of the best examples is 'loans' in cotton spinning companies. An Act for Industrial and Provident Societies (1852) allowed the societies to have loan account with the interest rate less than six percent. The Sun Mill modelled upon the Rochdale Co-operative Cotton Manufacturing Society decided to have such loan accounts through the debates of the general meeting in the year of its foundation. The companies born in the following boom period followed the Sun Mill.
