44 SPAIN - CREDIT 



this period the system defining the exercise of agricultural credit in Spain 

 will be submitted to parliament, the lessons of experience being duly taken 

 into account. 



II. Definition of Agricultural Associations. The System. 



Agricultural credit having been organized as stated, it became neces- 

 sary to multiply in the Spanish country districts the rural associations which 

 form its basis, and to encourage their creation where they do not yet exist. 

 The possibility of obtaining capital at a low rate and on good terms is in 

 itself a sufficient stimulus to the constitution of intermediary associations ; 

 but it was further indispensable to eliminate as far as possible obstacles of 

 an administrative kind which might in any way impede the movement to- 

 wards association. 



Owing to lack of precision in the law of 1887 on associations and the law 

 of 1906 on agricultural syndicates (i), organizations having a political, com- 

 mercial or other character, and having nothing in common with the insti- 

 tutions in favour of which these measures were framed, often shared the 

 advantages provided by legislation. Therein lies the justification of the 

 extreme severity evinced by the competent administrative agencies in 

 examining the by-laws and rules of the societies which asked to be registered 

 in conformity with the aforesaid laws. The necessity of possessing sufficient 

 information to enable registration to be granted or refused caused, in most 

 cases, instructions with respect to the appHcations for constitution, which 

 new rural organizations presented, to be issued very slowly. Moreover in 

 some doubtful cases the administration showed some narrowness of judge- 

 ment, a circumstance which was not surprising since the advantages of 

 registration consisted ultimately in certain fiscal exemptions. 



To eliminate these obstacles it was necessary to satisfy a long-standing 

 demand of the Spanish rural class, that is clearly and sharply to define agri- 

 cultural co-operation and association, determining how they should be active 

 in forms which would serve as models to future agricultural associations 

 constituted according to the laws already cited, and which would serve as 

 a basis on which the public administration could rapidly meet demands for 

 constitution. To this necessity the definitions of chapter II of the decree 

 respond, definitions which, we should state, were established by the Inter- 

 national Committee of Agriculture at its meeting of 1912 (2). 



According to these provisions agricultural association is " the agree- 

 ment by which two or more persons permanently pool their knowledge, 

 activity or economic resources to study or protect, create or improve means 

 for advancing the progress of agriculture and the improvement of the eco- 

 nomic or social condition of the parties to the agreement, by adopting the 

 principles of co-operation ". 



(i) See the paper on co-operation in Spanish agriculture in our issues for March and May 

 1915. 



(2) See El Problema agrario en Espana by Vizconde de Eza. Madrid, impr. Bernardo Ro- 

 driguez, 1915, pp. 197. 



