ITALY - CREDIT 



since all the others — Pawn Institute, Savings Bank, Land Credit and Agri- 

 cultural Credit Departments, — being governed by special laws, were still 

 subject to Government supervision. 



The central department is the old stock of the Monte de' Paschi ; 

 the others are quite modern branches, except the pawn estabUshment, 

 which might be considered the root. The central department receives sav- 

 ings deposits and contracts money loans according to the principles of com- 

 mon law ; the other departments conduct the business entrusted to them b}' 

 the laws and regulations governing them and it will not be out of place 

 to give a rapid glance at their work and the development they have attained. 



§ 5. THE VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS OF THE MONTE DEI PASCHI, 

 SAVINGS BANK, LAND CREDIT .\ND AGRICULTURAL CREDIT DEPARTMENTS. 



We have already obser^'^ed that in 1833 the Monte de' Paschi, which for 

 more than two centuries had remained almost unchanged, underwent its 

 first transformation, assuming also the functions of a Savings Bank, and 

 we said that from that moment the financial expansion of the Institute 

 really dates. The proveditor had pointed out to the board " the utiHty, 

 now demostrated b}' experience, of savings banks, both for private economy 

 and pubhc morals " and proposed an institution " by means of which the 

 poor might be given an opportunity for increasing their sax'ings." The new 

 institution, though under independent management, was so intimately 

 connected with the Monte, that it proposed to place its own siirplus with 

 the Monte, and draw from it whatever was indispensable to meet unfore- 

 seen and excessive demands for the return of deposits. 



It might be said that the Monte was to become the savings bank of 

 the popular Savings Bank. The rules were approved by Sovereign Rescript 

 of August 23rd., 1833 and the bank began work on January 4th., 1834. 

 In 1863, the foundation of affiliated batiks in the province began, \\'hich, 

 afterwards, were to spread over almost the whole of Tuscany : at first 

 they advanced timidly and it seemed they would never pass the confines 

 of the ancient State of Siena, consisting of the two provinces of Siena 

 and Grosseto, but in recent years afiifiated banks and branches of the 

 sa\4ngs bank have been founded in the provinces of Florence, Pisa, Arezzo 

 and Leghorn. 



The second branch, in order of time and importance, added to our 

 Monte was the Land Credit Department. In 1853, — it is a precedent that 

 deserve^ to be recalled to mind, —the Count of Cavour laid before the Subalp- 

 ine Parliament a biU for the encouragement of land credit institutions in 

 Italy without direct State intervention; the proposal was not favourably re- 

 ceived and only in June, 1S62 was a new bill presented to the Italian Cham- 

 ber, which, uniting land and agricultural credit, each supporting the other, 

 in a single institution, tended to make both " conspire in a friendly way to 

 improve the lot of the landholder and farmer." This bill some described as 



