ORGANIZATION OF AGRICULTURAI, CREDIT 45 



The co-operative associations contemplated by the decree may be for 

 consumption or production or for affording credit, or they may have mixed 

 objects. 



The co-operative credit societies, which are most interesting as regards 

 the circulation of capital in the country districts, may have limited or un- 

 limited liability or be mixed in form. Their business will include discount- 

 ing advances, loans, and the acceptance of remitments or deposits, and 

 will be transacted only with their own members or other agricultural co- 

 operative societies. Thus all rural co-operative societies, whether credit 

 societies or other, can equally profit by the advantages of the decree as to 

 obtaining capital. The co-operative credit societies can borrow from per- 

 sons outside their association, receive their deposits and discount their bills, 

 but with the sole object of effecting these operations with their own 

 members or increasing their circulating funds. The distribution of pro- 

 fits will take place — be it noted — among members, in proportion to the 

 sums they have paid to the association as interest on operations effected 

 with it, and it will be in the form of a rebatement of interest. 



The agricultural co-operative associations defined by the decree con- 

 sidered will be subject, as regards their constitution and working, to the 

 law of 1887 o^ associations and the law of 1906 on agricultural syndicates, 

 and will enjoy the benefits granted by the latter law. 



§ 2. The OPINION OP THE AGRICUIvTURAI. AND ECONOMIC WORLD 

 ON THE CENTRAL CREDIT FUND. 



Before we end this short study of the new organization of agricultural 

 credit in Spain we will, to facilitate the reader's estimate of its fitness to 

 the agricultural and social situation of the country, shortly notice some com- 

 mentaries on it published in the technical press. We will analyse them ob- 

 jectively, relying on the considerations we have explained. Repeated al- 

 lusion to these criticisms has on occasion been made by the minister who 

 was author of the innovation when he has brought it before the public. 



The independent agricultural press, beginning with a widely circula- 

 ted periodical, La Lega agraria, does not stint its praise of the new decree. 

 The paper mentioned even writes of the Central Fund that it sees "a wave of 

 riches pass to the country districts at the mere appearance of this redeem- 

 ing institution " (i). But at the same time another section of the press, 

 which reflects the opinion only of industrial and banking circles, is less fa- 

 vourable to the organization set up to supply credit to agriculturists. One 

 of the most important organs having this tendency is the weekly Espana 

 Economica y Financiera. We think it pertinent to our end to examine this 



(i) "El pais agricola de enhorabuena " , La Liga Agraria, No. 1314, Madrid, 20 July 



