Pravni aspekti zadruge u Petrovcu (1846 -1848) / Legal aspects of cooperatives in Petrovac (1846 - 1848)
2018
Vitez, Miroslav
During difficult economic and societal ciscumstances caused by dissolution of feudalism, farmers in Petrovac founded in 1846 a credit cooperative called Domestic (economic) Society. Judging by its internal structure and inner workings, the society was a true cooperative. In its work and organization, the cooperative applied rules of openness, volunteerism, equal rights among its members, cooperative upbringing, limited interests on deposits and loans, etc. Its selfhelp function was maintained by collecting deposits of some cooperative members and granting loans to others. In theory it is considered to be one of the first cooperatives in the world in general. This paper sheds light on its legal, social and economic meaning. The paper aims to highlight its social and economic significance, and legal status. It checks claims that it was established independently of the well-known Rochdale cooperative. It originated from a strong, national self-help practice, equivalent to the basic Rochdale principles codified later on. The Petrovac cooperative provided evidence of universality of cooperatives’ self-help matrix regardless of time and location of its manifestation.
显示更多 [+] 显示较少 [-]