Ouzhou hezuo sheye kaocha ji [A treatise on European Commercial Cooperation].

First edition. 6 photographic plates in the front, the first of the author together with Prof. Charles Gide in Paris. Several illustrations and folding tables. 8vo. Original decorated cloth. Light browning throughout due to poor paper quality, but overall a very good presentation copy signed by the author to Charles E. Tomlinson. Together with a printed envelope of 'The China Co-Operators' Union' containing the name-cards of the author and Mr. Joseph P. Tsu 'Commissioner of the Investigation of the Co-operative Movement in Europe'. [vi], 4, 4, 9, 270pp. Shanghai, Zhongguo hezuo xueshe, 

Chen Zhongming (1904-?) was born in Xiangtan (Hunan Province). He entered Fudan University in 1924 to study economics. In 1928 he went to Paris to study the Cooperative Movement. He studied under Charles Gide (1847-1932) the chief expert and protagonist of the Movement and graduated in 1929. The present is Chen's first publication about the Cooperative Movement in Europe presenting the fruits of his studies to the Chinese public. The socialist aspects of the movement clearly fell on fertile ground and arguably it anticipated Communist cooperatives of the 1950s and 60s. The present is the first detailed analysis of the economic and practical aspects and their possible application in China. The photographic plates include an image of the first cooperative shop in Paris, called 'Commerce Veridique et Social' which was founded in 1835. Chen went on become Director of the Nanjing Central Political School School of Cooperation as well as Director of the National Cooperative Training Institute, and Professor at Fudan University. In 1948 went to the Czech Republic to attend the 16th annual meeting of the International Cooperation Alliance. After 1949, he  taught at the Shanghai Institute of Finance and Economics. Charles Ernest Tomlinson (1874-1949) was a major contributor to and fervent supporter of the Cooperative movement in England and the author of 'The Making of Political Thought', published in Manchester in 1925. Rare. No copy in OCLC. 

Stock Code: 226809