Competing forms of cooperation? Land League, land war and cooperation in Ireland, 1879-1914

Abstract

Two distinct forms of cooperation emerged in response to structural changes in the agricultural sector of the Irish economy in the late nineteenth century: the Land League and the Irish Agricultural Organisation Society. This article argue that the Land League fostered cooperation among tenants and agitated for government intervention to reduce rents and transfer land ownership from landlords to tenants, whereas the IAOS encouraged the imitation of continental European forms of cooperative agricultural enterprise. This article analyses the relationship between both forms of cooperation and finds that the Land League and subsequent Land War did not hinder the adoption of cooperation enterprise and was instead complementary to cooperative organisation. However, the article argues that the IAOS cooperatives were ideologically motivated and misguided and that cooperative enterprises introduced offered no institutional advantages compared to incumbent institutions.