The token coupons of
"La Nueva Vida", by Jaume Boada Salom
The cooperativism had a major importance
in Majorca from the end of the rule of Elizabeth II (1868) till the outbreak
of the Spanish Civil War (1936). Throughout the island, many company stores
were founded and, as the years passed, they became an important financial element
for many Majorcan villages, as well as for Palma, the island's capital; but
apart from the financial point, the company stores looked for something probably
more important than that: to establish an ethic guarantee on the products they
offered, which meant not to sell them adulterated (a quite usual practice in
those times); a fair price, and to let the profits have a positive impact on
the members, consumers and even the own village. For that reason, its management
and philosophy were very different from those that rule in most of nowadays
companies in our capitalist world.
Among all the company stores which
existed in Majorca, the most profitable of all, according to its results, not
only in Majorca but also in Spain, was "La Nueva Vida" (The New Life),
a cooperative founded in the Majorcan village of Llucmajor in July 1907, with
a share capital of 930 pesetas and a board of directors formed by men with experience
in trade unions and politics. Its task was not limited to the strict commercial
side of the business, but it became an important element of social cohesion
within the village, by organizing many cultural, recreational and educational
activities. In fact, in 1908 they founded a night school, whose success promoted
the foundation of a day school short after. "La Nueva Vida" also used
to organize other activities involving the villagers, such as excursions, carnival
balls, theatre performances, conferences, etc. Most of the success of "La
Nueva Vida" was due to the important amount of members who joined it while
it worked, ranging from 90 in 1908 to 650 in 1928, a great success if we take
into account the small population of Llucmajor by that time.
Despite the first and most important
section was the merchandise one, in 1924 "La Nueva Vida" appears structured
in two other sections: fabrics and coffee. During the 1930's, the bakery section
was created and had a large store in San Juan street and nine shops throughout
the village. In February 1930, due to a toughening of the working conditions
by the employers, a strike was held in Llucmajor, during which a new shoemaker's
cooperative called "La Hormiga" (The Ant) was born.
The objective of this article is
the analysis of a number of coupons which were put into currency by "La
Nueva Vida". Till now, collectors who came up against them were not sure
whether these coupons worked as simple emergency tokens, just like those which
were widely used in Spain when there was a shortage of coinage and mainly during
the Spanish Civil War, that means as a monetary item with a concrete face value
which was accepted to pay for merchandise. Despite this would be the use that
we, as collectors, would like to consider these pieces as "coins",
it seems that their use was not exactly that one.
These coupons were handed to those
people who bought goods at the company store depending on the volume of their
shopping, never minded whether they were members or not, as the company store
was open to everyone. Therefore, if somebody bought for a value of, let's say,
5 pesetas and 50 centimos, he or she received coupons for a total amount of
5.50 pesetas. When the semester ended, the profits (which company stores call
"excess of payment") were shared among several concepts, whose proportion
depended on the volume of the profits.
One part was devoted to the expenses
of the store, another one to the social activities, and, thirdly (it used to
be a 30%) to the buyers. The coupons were then exchanged for an amount of money
in proportion to the purchases; obviously, it was not the equivalent to the
face value of the coupons, but a proportion that used to be between the 5 and
10%. That depended on the profits and on the fact that those were enough to
pay the proportions to all the buyers. When the semester closed, if there weren't
profits, money was simply not distributed among buyers.
However, some oral witnesses have
explained that these coupons were sometimes used as currency when somebody did
not have enough cash, as long as its value when exchanging them at the end of
the semester was not too higher than the value he or she intended to pay. Obviously,
anyone accepting one of these coupons as payment should be familiar with "La
Nueva Vida" and be aware of its accumulated profits. It was possible to
know that information at the closing of each month, when the shareholders' meeting
announced the amount available to be distributed.
Therefore, depending on the accumulated
profit, a one peseta coupon, for example, could be accepted as payment for an
amount between 5 and 10 centimos (between 5 and 10% we mentioned above).
The samples we have been able to
find have three face values: 10 centimos, 25 centimos and 1 peseta. Most of
them belong to the merchandise section (which, as we said before, it was the
oldest and most important one) but, as seen in the classification below, there
are some from the fabric section, having located a 1 peseta sample only; we
guess that there might have been others from the coffee and bakery sections,
but haven't seen them yet. Regarding the material they are printed in, it's
a kind of blotting paper, although the apparently oldest ones are made of cardboard
and are marked with the company's ink stamp and a different mark shows their
face value. Regarding the design, it shows the usual simplicity of these kind
of items, but at the same time there are a wide range of varieties of letter
shapes and types. Another curious point of these tokens is that they often appear
with a cut-off corner. The most likely explanation for that could be that those
cuts were made by a member to cancel the coupon when exchanging it for cash.
The oldest cardboard tokens are simply cut in half.
If every person going shopping to
the company store could get benefits, one might wonder which the advantages
of being a shareholder were. Being the owner of shares did not mean direct financial
benefits, which, as we said before, received those holding tokens. However,
the shareholders had right to enter the board of directors and to have access
to the social benefits: schools, medical assistance (it covered, for instance,
work leaves); and its pension system, being the first beneficiaries the members
who founded the company in 1907. By the way, every share had a price of 50 pesetas,
which could be paid in instalments. The most usual was paying 10 centimos every
week till the 50 pesetas.
Finally, the outbreak of the Spanish
Civil War put a sudden end to "La Nueva Vida" and "La Hormiga".
According to some sources, on July 19th 1936 their activities were suspended,
their properties sold at auction and 22 of their members executed. Nowadays,
some people in Llucmajor tell that they were driven to Cabo Blanco (the White
Cape, a cliffy area in Palma Bay), and thrown to a deep pit. It is known that
because of their prosperity and fair prices, they had become a tough competence
for many dealers in the zone; besides, they probably earned many enemies among
the employers and the most conservative people of their area of influence due
to the task that "La Nueva Vida" carried out in favour of the workers
and the villagers, and to its democratic and independent management. That's
why it was not surprising that, as happened in many others places across Spain
during that conflict, many people took advantage of the violent atmosphere and
looked for revenge.
Acknowledgments:
- Manel Santana i Morro, writer, historian and teacher at the University of
the Balearic Islands, for his documental contribution to the making of this
article.
- Antoni Calero, for having allowed his collection to be photographed to illustrate
this article.
Classification
