First published in 1951. The purpose of this study was to consider the prospects of the British Co-operative movement in all its main aspects and not as a consumers' movement only. The author examines ways in which the Co-operative enterprise, in its various forms, could best be fitted into the economic structure of the coming society. This title will be of great interest to scholars and students of labour history.

George Douglas Howard Cole (25 September 1889 - 14 January 1959) was an English political theorist, economist, writer and historian. As a libertarian socialist he was a long-time member of the Fabian Society and an advocate for the co-operative movement.