Part III: Credit 



SPAIN. 



THE ORGANIZATION OF AGRICUIyTURAIv CREDIT 

 BY THE FORMATION OF A CENTRAlv FUND. 



OFFICIAI. SOURCES: 



Real Decreto RELAxrvo a la creaci6n de una caja central de cuedito agrIcola 

 (Royal Decree relative to the Creation of a Central Fund of Agricultural Credit). Gaceta 

 de Madrid, No. 196, Madrid, 15 July 1917. • 



OTHER SOURCES (r) : 



Eza (Visconde de) El problema agrario in Espafia {The Agrarian Problem in. Spain) Impr. 



Bernardo Rodrigiie?:, Madrid, 191 5. 

 The Spanish Agricultt7r.vl and Economic Press. ^ 



§ I. Preliminaries. 



" Our agrcultiiral masses, who form the first step in our scale of pro- 

 duction and are necessary to all further production, ask for the circulating 

 capital necessary to all the completing and improving measures of which they 

 have heard for years as means of redemption. In order to procure manures, 

 to secure the use of modern agricultural machinery, to buy animals for breed- 

 ing, such an expenditure of funds as is impossible to a modest farmer is ne- 

 cessary ; and therefore we think it essential to supply such a small farmer, at 

 once owner of some fields and lessee of others — a double capacity which 

 allows him with difficulty to earn a meagre livelihood for his family — with 

 that equipment for his struggle which is in the twentieth century indispen- 

 sable ". The Spanish Minister of Fomento, the Visconde de Eza, expressed 

 himself thus in introducing the decree of 21 July 1917. 



(i) For the general bibliography of agricultural credit in Spain the articles " 1,'organi- 

 sation agricole en Espapne " and " I<cs probl^mes du credit foncier rural et le Banco Hipote- 

 cario de Espafia ", published respectively in our issues (Bulletin Mensuel des Inslitufions Eco- 

 nomiques et Sociales) for February and July 1912, should be consulted. 



