František Ladislav Chleborád

František Ladislav Chleborád (24 November 1839 – 20 July 1911) was a Czech political economist and a pioneer of cooperatives.

Doctor František Chleborád
Franciscus Chleborad[1]
František Chleborád before 1899
Born	Habry, Bohemia, Austrian Empire
Died	20 July 1911 St. Petersburg, Russian Empire
Resting place	St. Petersburg, Polish cemetery
Nationality	Bohemian
Citizenship	Austrian
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Prague
Influences	Franz Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch
Academic work
Discipline	political economy

Biography

Born in Habry^[1] in Bohemia, part of the Austrian Empire, he graduated Staroměstské gymnázium (Old Town Grammar School) in Prague and went on to study law and political economy.

Being fluent in Bulgarian, Russian, German, Serbian or French, Chleborád travelled the world and became an honorary consul of the Republic of Venezuela. He held many posts during his active career, including the chairman of the Brno Sokol, and leadership roles in financial institutions and banks.

Chleborád was prominent for founding the worker's cooperatives,^[2] named Oul (19th century Czech for beehive), encouraging workers to unite and to be educated.^[3] The organization was inspired by the ideas of Schulze-Delitzsch. The Czech mutual aid movement then spread outside of Prague and was also established in Brno and Liberec.^{[4][verification needed]}

He taught political economy at the University of Prague, writing influential textbooks, arguing for nationalist socialism.^[5] He was academically active at around the financial crisis of 1873.

In 1888, Chleborád emigrated to the Russian Empire, where he became the government's adviser on matters Slavic and financial. He died in St. Petersburg in 1911.

Works

Chleborád wrote many treatises on political economy,^[6] published in newspapers (such as Dělník and Dělnické Listy) and even wrote a poetic work on saints Cyril and Methodius:

• Boj o majetek (1884)
• Hospodářství vlastenecké (1868)
• Pomoc chudým dělníkům (1868)
• Soustava národního hospodářství politického (1869)
• Věštcové slávy. K oslavení tisícileté památky prvosvětitelů Slovanů sv. Cyrilla a Methoděje (1888) (poetry)

See also

• Credit union

Further reading

• Seligman, Edwin R.; Johnson, Alvin Saunders, eds. (1937). "CHLEBORAD, FRANTISEK LADISLAV". Encyclopaedia of the social sciences. New York: The Macmillan Company.