Formation of the economic mechanism of urban consumer cooperation in Siberia in the beginning of 20th century

We consider the formation of the economic mechanism of consumer cooperation in Siberia by example of the city and workers' cooperatives in the early 20th century to 1919. The main attention is paid to the study of the process of accumulation of cooperatives' cash and system of material incentives for effective economic activity. The dynamics of changes of the value of a share, share capital, dividends and payments in the conditions of the economic crisis during World War I, revolutions and the Civil War and the impact of this process on the development of trading and non-trading operations of cooperatives are discussed. Siberian cooperatives began trading at a very small share of capital. The nominal value of the share contributions increased in proportion to the growth of inflation in the period of WWI from 3 up to 500 rubles. Mutual capital grew along with the number of shareholders, which was a consequence of increasing the role of cooperation in supplying the population with food. The cooperatives had millions of trade turnover, still not share capital, but borrowed funds were the basis of working capital. The cooperatives' profit was distributed mainly in proportion to the monetary contribution of the members to the volume of the trading turnover. Dividends fluctuated between 0.9-8%. Since 1916, there was a tendency of refusal of payment of dividends and transfer of the profit in the working capital. Profit from foreign buyers was credited in the cultural and charity fund. Growth of the share contributions and reduction of dividends did not reduce the attractiveness of the consumer cooperation in the eyes of the population. In the absence of the goods the fact of the acquisition of products of the first necessity through the cooperative was the main economic incentive and bonus. The study of the principles and the procedure of accumulation and distribution of income in the Siberian city and workers' cooperatives in the early 20th century to 1919 allows to ascertain that the cooperators were constantly looking for and testing optimal forms of the system of material incentives of economic activities, securing its flexibility, maneuverability, openness. In the short term cooperatives showed flexibility, efficiency and enviable adaptability to the lack of a developed economic infrastructure and administrative-bureaucratic influence of the authorities. They created a mechanism of functioning of cooperation that contributed to the survival of a relatively poor, but a large enough portion of the population in conditions of market economy, complicated by the hardships of socio-political crises of the beginning of the 20th century.

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