ALMANACH HISTORYCZNY

Summary

In the Kingdom of Poland in 1904–1914 at least 26 worker cooperatives and one branch were legalized. The legal basis for their registration was in most cases, the model statutes worker cooperatives of 1904, in part the model statutes of the consumer associations of 1897, the provisional regulations on associations and unions of 1906, as well as individual consent. In individual guberniyas (within the boundaries of 1867–1912) most organiza-tions were founded in: Lublin (9), Warsaw (8), Piotrków (7) and one in Kalisz and Siedlce. The greatest numbers of cooperatives included weaving and dressmaking (8), consum-ers (6), masonry and paving (5), and shoemaking (4). The founders of workers cooper-atives were mostly craftsmen who wanted to create companies capable of competing in the market with factory products. The workers, in part with the help of Catholic priests, set up bakery cooperatives to provide good quality and cheap bread. Peasants established bakery and weaving cooperatives. Nationally, as many as 19 organizations were formed by Poles and one by Poles jointly with Germans. The Jews established two associations. There is no information about the nationality of four founding groups. Housing difficulties were to be solved by housing cooperatives (3), but they did not begin to work.