So Joe did it and Brigham did it. Yet my understanding is the tithing is 10% of your interest (surplus). So is there a timeline on the web somewhere giving more information about when the United Order was practiced and when it was more tithing oriented?

The small Mormon community I grew up in practiced the United Order up until about 1887. (They also practiced polygamy, well after the Declaration).

The United Order was supposed to be "pure communism". In other words all farmers, ranchers, chicken keepers, garden growers were to turn in their produce, stock and fields to the Bishops Storehouse; the goods were then divided out to the families by their needs. Without going into all my small town history, http://jeff.scott.tripod.com/josephcity.html.

Here's John Bushman's http://catalog.lib.asu.edu/search/c?SEARCH=HX656.U54+A3x

http://catalog.lib.asu.edu/search/c?SEARCH=HX656.U54+A2x

Cool, thank you

that the co-ops around Utah were started as part of the United Order. You might look that topic up and see what you find.

Actually it wasn't just "farm produce". It was supposed to be a "barter" system. In other words; a logger could turn in wood; a hunter could turn in a deer or elk, a woman could turn in clothes or spun wool. a blacksmith could turn in horseshoes and you could get back milk, eggs, fresh veggies etc...

The problem was that a blacksmith may/would value his horseshoes at $5 and expect to get back $5 worth of eggs, cheese, leather, wood. It did last for 11 years in Joseph City, but eventually people got selfish, or they didn't know how to compare value; which wasn't how it was supposed to work. A couple that turned in an elk or deer would only get back a little of the meat and maybe a dozen eggs; While a polygamous family of 10 would get 3 dozen eggs, most of the venison, a cow for milk. etc....

You could see why they had to drop it after awhile.