Part I : Co-operation and Association 



GERMANY. 



THE " LAXDSCHAFT " OV POSEN FROM i JANUARY 1914 

 TO I JANUARY 1916. 



SOURCES : 



VERWALTTJNGSBERICHT DER K6NIGLICHEN DiREKTION DER POSENER 1,ANDSCH.^FT BETREFKEND 

 DAS JAHR I914 NEBST DEN VEKHANDLUNGEN DES ENGEREN AUSSCHUSSES DER POSENER 



I,ANDSCHAFT VOM JUNi 1915. Ostdcutschc Buchdruckerei imd Verlagsaiista]t. A. G. Po- 

 seu, 1915, 86 pp. 



VERWALTUNGSBERICHT DER KOnIGLICHEN DiREKTION DER POSENER I^ANDSCHAFT BETREF- 

 FENDDAS jAHR I915 NEBST DEN VERHANDLUNGEN DES ENGEREN AUSSCHUSSES DER POSENER 

 I,ANDSCHAFT VOM 2 7 APRIL I916. ibid. 57 pp. 



The importance of the Landschaft of Posen, from the point of view 

 of land and agriculture, is certainly not new to the readers of this Review 

 who have been able more than once to acquire information as to its methods 

 of working and activity. We need not therefore insist on the value of the 

 data in the two publications cited at the head of this article, which enable 

 us to analyse the reports for 1914 and 1915 of the administration of the 

 Konigliche Direktion der Landschaft and those of the committee and of the 

 Bank of the Landschaft with the remarks of the commissioners of accounts 

 and the schemes for a budget. The elements thus collected are instructive 

 and allow us to apprehend the complete vitality of this movement. 



The Landschaften are, as will be remembered, societies which grant to 

 landowners within their respective spheres of activity loans secured b}^ the 

 value of their properties. The amount of the loan granted is represented by 

 bonds and negotiable titles to land issued from year to year at varying rates 

 of interest, at from 3 to 4 per cent, in the case of the society with which we 

 are now concerned. The bearers of the titles issued in one year form within 

 the society a small association, for each of these groups of titles is subject 

 to the same rules as to the amortization of the sums borrowed. A special 

 bank, called the Landschaftlichc Bank, undertakes the purely financial 

 work of the Landschaft. In certain cases, when a borrower cannot meet 

 his engagements, the society undertakes the administration of the property 

 representing the value of the debt contracted , and sometimes proceeds to 

 sell all or part of the pledged lands. These are the essential features of the 



