The Rise and fall of the Logan Co-operative Mercantile Institution, 1869-1872 by Leonard J. Arrington

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TIE HI SI AND FALL OF THE LOGAN CO-OPERATIVE
MERCANTILE INSTITUTION,  1869-1872
By- Leonard J. Arrington
MORMON COOPERATION, particularly Mormon merchantile cooperation, has
been the object of considerable study by students of Utah's history, but
little attention has been given to the functioning of such cooperation on
the local level. Every history of Utah worthy of the name describes the
decision of Brigham Young and other authorities of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, in October, 1868, to establish a giant wholesale store in Salt Lake City (Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution)
and a chain of locally-owned retail cooperatives in all Mormon settlements
of the West. It is also well known that the Latter-day Saints voted
"unanimously" to patronize these church-sponsored cooperatives. The
retail cooperatives, in turn, were to patronize the wholesale institution
in Salt Lake City. As the result of this program, Zion's Co-operative
Mercantile Institution (popularly known as Z. C. M. I.) absorbed the
business of leading Mormon merchants in Salt Lake City early in 1869 and
became, almost immediately, the largest retailer and wholesaler of
Leonard J. Arrington is associate professor of economics at Utah
State Agricultural College and past president of the Cache Valley Chapter,
Utah State Historical Society.Jjwhom this paper was originally prepared^
^■Three important studies are Hamilton Gardner, "Cooperation Among the
Mormons," Quarterly Journal of Economics. XXXI (May, 1917). 461-99; Pera-
morz Y. Pox, "Cooperation Among the Mormons," a typewritten study, completed
in 1936, and available at the Church Historian's Office, Salt Lake City;
and Arden B. Olsen, "The History of Mormon Mercantile Cooperation in
Utah" (Unpublished Ph. D. Dissertation, University of California, 1935).