48 SPAIN - CREDIT 



for it, it is just that the fositos, with a part of the capital of which they now 

 have not the use, collaborate in the modern organization of the credit en- 

 trusted to the Central Fund. They will thus enter into a movement 

 which will rapidly lead them to that transformation on which the useful- 

 ness of their existence depends. 



To resume : the organization of agricultural credit in Spain, as es- 

 tablished by the royal decree of 12 January 1917, has made a favourable 

 impression in the economic and agricultural circles of the country, with the 

 exception of a small section of opinipn in banking and industrial circles. 

 It can therefore be affirmed that this organization is very well adapted to 

 the sentiment of agricultural society. Only the results which will be obtain- 

 ed in practice can tell us if the agency which this decree has formed is 

 fitted to its object and in what measure it is so. This is the reason that 

 the minister who is its author has left an experimental character to the Cen- 

 tral Fund of Agricultural Credit, in order later to give it a definite form 

 when the modifications which experience shows to be necessary have been 

 introduce.d into it. Already however it is possible to afiirm that the orga- 

 nization which is the object of the decree meets an inevitable need of Spa- 

 nish agriculture, that of supplying farmers having modest resources with the 

 capital they require. Therefore it is permissible to hope that it will not be 

 necessary to wait long for the happy consequences of so important a 

 measure. 



