could earn about £1.75 a week (35 shillings). A share could be bought for £5.00. Workers would buy shares in their own company and maybe another mill to balance the risk. Companies' capital consisted of loan finance as well as equity subscriptions, generally in equal proportions. Workers were virtually guaranteed to earn more in dividend (always over 5%) than in a saving bank. Share were trader over tables in local public houses and Oldham had its own stock exchange. It was in the workers interest to ensure that the mill was profitable so they received the largest dividend. When in 1875, there was a change in conditions of service of textile workers from the pay scale called the 1872 Oldham list, to the 1875 Oldham list the transition went smoothly, as the dividend was an important incentive. Wage rates climbed and costs were recouped by using inferior cotton. William Ewart Gladstone, is quoted as saying in 1867, that the working class had become "an association of small capitalists employing other work people." Oldham counts Lancashire was renowned for the production of the finest, which means thinnest, cotton yarn. When the Oldham Limiteds started to expand the output in Oldham, they competed by spinning coarse yarn. The grade of cotton, is measured by its count. This refers to the number of hanks of 840 yards than collectively weigh 1 lb. 1-40 is called a coarse count in the United Kingdom, 40-80 is a medium count and 80 to 160 is fine. Consequently, an Oldham count, is a count between 1 and 40. In the United States, the terms are used differently. Future investment There were two other booms, 1883–84 and 1889–90. In all, from 1858–96, Oldham formed 154 limiteds, or more than twice as much as found in Bolton. The only other part of the textile industry where the limited company had the same hold as in Oldham was the Irish linen trade. Company voting was on the egalitarian method of one man one vote. They could be ruthless dismissing the whole board if they were seen to be under-performing. the Depression of 1890–1896, when stock market index dropped for 48 month strained the working class capitalist system. Trade unions which never had had hold in Oldham offered more security than share ownership. The boards of the Oldham Limiteds became more secretive and the cooperative principle was abandoned. In 1893, the