WM. THOMSON & SONS, LTD. 
89 
holding £200. The remaining £5,759 was held by various 
individuals, 240 in number (workmen and other persons interested 
in the Co-operative movement). Of the loan capital, £6,967 
belonged to members employed by the Society, and of this £6,876 
belonged to Mr. Thomson; £880 belonged to other Societies, 
almost exclusively retail distributive (Store) Societies; £1,930 to 
Trade Union organisations; and £2,154 to various individuals. 
For the first few years after the conversion of this business 
into a Co-operative Society considerable difficulties were met with, 
impeding the financial success of the undertaking, because some 
of the customers, objecting to the association of Mr. Thomson with 
the co-operative movement and to the adoption of co-operative 
principles in the concern, withdrew a large amount of business. 
On the other hand, the working-class Co-operative Societies from 
the first have given the association considerable orders, and while 
the Society’s sales were at the outset about £22,500 a year, they 
have now more than doubled, being £46,932 in 19.11. 
The profits realised have during the existence of the Society 
varied greatly in different years, but the shareholders have 
received their 5 per cent, all through ;* and it is to be noted that 
on several occasions, in years in which the profits did not suffice to 
pay this rate in full, the employees voluntarily made good the 
deficiency out of their wages, the sums thus given up by the 
workpeople to the shareholders amounting in all to £1,400. After 
allowing for this amount, the average net addition which the 
share in profits (bonus on wages plus sums credited to the Assur 
ance and Pension Fund) allotted to the employees has made to 
their wages since the Society was formed has been equivalent to 
3'3 per cent, on wages. "~ 
With regard to the wages paid by the Society, it is to be 
observed that in 1893 it was decided at the suggestion of 
Mr. Thomson to substitute experimentally for the system of pay 
ment by piece-work, usual in the woollen weaving industry, a 
system of time-wages, t and at the same time to adopt, instead 
of the hours worked in the trade (then 56| hours per week) a 
48-hour week; time-wage payment with a 48-hour week has 
been in operation in these mills ever since. In the last Report 
of the Society (for the year ending December 31, 1911) it is 
stated that, desiring to commemorate in a practical manner the 
twenty-fifth year of the Society’s existence, it had increased wages 
all round, at the same time increasing the minimum of the 
weekly pension allowance to 12.s. for men and to 8s. for women. 
It is of interest to note that no married women are employed 
by the Society; those women who, upon their marriage, have 
worked not less than five years with the Society being granted, 
* On one occasion 4 per cent, only was paid, but the deficiency of 1 per cent, 
was made up to the shareholders out of profits soon afterwards. 
f The main objection entertained by the weavers to being paid piece-wages 
was that they received no remuneration in respect of periods between finishing 
one job and starting on another, this “ waiting for warps ” causing them 
considerable disadvantage. The time-wage rates introduced when piece-work 
was abolished were based upon average earnings in each department during a 
fairly good year.