905 

 Miscellaneous Report Xo, 3. 



Cooperative credit associations in certain European 

 countries, E. T. Peters (pp. 117). — This includes accounts of the 

 German ciedit unions or people's banks, Raiffeisen loan associations, 

 German legislation on cooperative associations, people's banks of Aus- 

 tria-Hungary, and cooperative banking in Italj^ and Russia. 



The following comparative statements show the greatness of the 

 interests involved in these associations, as well as their intimate con- 

 nection with the welfare of the agricultural classes: 



The latest date for wliii-h returns are at baud for all the eonutries is the close of 

 the year 1887. At that lime Germauy had 2,135 of the Schulze-Delitzsch credit 

 unions, and probably about 800 of the Raitfeiseu associations. The jieoplc's banks 

 of Austria numbered 1,313, of which 118 wore unregistered. The totals in Hungary 

 and Italy, respectively, appear to be identical with the numbers making returns, at 

 least there is no indication to the contrary. Tlie total number in Russia at the same 

 date was somewhat above 900. (jf tiie Schulze-Delitzsch unions the number Avhicli 

 made returns for the date named was only 8SG, or about 41 per cent of the whole 

 number. For Austria the number making returns as to their capital and business is 

 estimated at 75 per cent, and 75 pei- cent of the 1,195 registered banks would be 986, 

 while the numbers for Hungary, Italy, and Russia are, respectively, 488, 641, and 

 712. This gives a total of 3,623 tliat made returns for the close of 1887, exclu.siveof 

 associations of the Raifleiseli and Wollemborg types. 



The number of member.s actually returned is highest in Austria, but that is under- 

 stood to include the membership of all the registered associations, and if allowance 

 were made for the large number of the German Schulze-Delitzsch unions which did 

 not make returns, their membership would be very much "larger than that of the 

 Austrian institutions. For Hungary no hgures as to the number of members have 

 been found. The actual figures furnished for the German societies are 456,276; for 

 the Austrian, 513,756; for the Italian, 318,979; and for the Russian, 193,945, making 

 a total of 1,482,956. A very moderate estimate for Hungary, for the unregistered 

 societies of Austria, and for the German and Russian societies not making returns as 

 to their membership — including among the former the Raitfeiseu loan associations — 

 Avould raise the aggregate membership to at least 2,250,000, and an estimate of 

 2,500,000 would scarcely be extravagant. 



We have seen that in the German credit unions making returns, about one third of 

 the members, if Ave include gardeners and rural laborers, belong to the agricultural 

 class. The proportion of agriculturists in those not making returns is i)robably 

 higher, since these will naturally consist to a greater extent than the others of unions 

 located in the smaller towns surrounded by agricultural i»opulati<ms ; while the mem- 

 bership of the Raitfeiseu associations is mainly agricultural, as also is that of the 

 Russian associations; and in the Italian popular banks the rural class appears to be 

 more largely represented than in the Schulze-Delitzsch credit unions. In view of 

 tfhese considerations, it is evident that considerably more than one third of the mem- 

 bers estimated to be embraced in all the associations must consist of farmers, garden- 

 ers, and others earning their livelihood by the cultivation of the soil. The number 

 of this class of members can in fact hardly be less than 850^000, and it may not fall 

 fax short of 1.000,000. 



