vi.,
pp. 119--141.]
One of the most promising of co-operative undertakings established by
employers for the benefit of their workpeople, was that of the Messrs.
Briggs and Son, of Whitwood collieries, near Wakefield. The collieries
were converted into a limited company in 1865. The working colliers were
made partners in the prosperity of the concern to this extent,--that
whenever the divisible profits accruing from the business in any year,
after making allowance for depreciation, exceeded ten per cent, on the
capital embarked, all those employed by the company were to receive
one-half of such excess profit as a bonus, to be distributed amongst
them in proportion to their respective earnings during the year. The
object of the owners was to put an end to strikes, which had sometimes
placed them in peril of their lives, and also to enable them to live on
better terms with their workpeople. The colliers were invited to become
shareholders, and thus to take a personal interest in the prosperity of
the concern.
The project was received with great favour by the friends of
co-operation. Mr. John Stuart Mill, in his Principles of Political
Economy, announced that "the Messrs. Briggs had taken the _first step_;
and that it was highly honourable on the part of those employers of
labour to have initiated a system so full of benefit both to the
operatives employed and to the general interests of social improvement.
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