The Start-Europe 

The roots of the co-operative movement can be traced back to Rochdale, England, in 1844. 

Times were harsh in Germany in the mid 19^th century and early pioneers like Herman Schulze-Delich and Frederick Raiffeisen experimented with financial co-operatives to help farmers struggling from the effects of economic depression, crop failures, famine and usury. Raiffeissen is credited with expanding the credit union idea to its fullest potential.  Credit unions were seen as having both an economic and social role providing a way of building community, teaching and encouraging thrift and self-help. 

Such was the need, the concept of co-operative credit spread quickly to other European countries while still being refined and proven in Germany.  Democratic member control was key to the success of these Societies and fundamental credit union operating principals such as one member one vote, granting of loans based on character, payment of dividends, reasonable interest rates on loans were practiced.

The Co-operative Idea Grows

Co-operation is as old as human society; people have always worked together to support shared goals and advance the common good. But the modern co-operative emerged in the 1800s as a way for people to work together to achieve shared goals.

The concept crossed the Atlantic to North America and into the Caribbean region towards the end of the 19^th century.  In the early 1940s, the concept of credit unions was formally introduced into the Caribbean by missionaries from Canada and the USA.  The idea of credit unions was accepted and credit unions were organized in Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago in the early forties and in Dominica.

During the 1920’s – 1940’s Co-operatives existed informally in Dominica. These took the form of ‘coup de main’ and ‘sub’. A ‘coup de main” was a co-operative arrangement in which farmers and other community groups pooled their efforts to clear lands for cultivation, haul canoes from the forest, construct houses and so on.