1995 is a year of great importance for the Cooperative Movement throughout Slovakia and the world as a whole. It marks the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the first cooperative society in what is now the Slovak Republic - the Husbandman's League founded on February 9.th 1845 in Sobotište. It was the first cooperative society in continental Europe and the second in Europe as a whole after that formed in the English town of Rochdale. The instigator and founder was Samuel Jurkovič. It was the first cooperative providing loans and, at the same time, performed the functions of a savings bank. It provided for its members - and, in exceptional cases, for non-members in need - cheap credit from funds provided by regular savings deposited in the League's coffers.