THE MONTE IJEI PASCHI 57 



an importation of the French land credit system, which had just been reor- 

 ganized by law of July, i860. It is well to remember that at that date the 

 Chamber had before it the proposal for the sale of the State Land, with the 

 object of withdraviing from the expensive and unremunerative adminis- 

 tration of the State the considerable amount of land in its possession, and 

 the Government at the same time v. as carefully preparing the most suit- 

 able instruments of credit for the better and more speedy sale of this land. 



The Parliamentary Commission, on whose v. ork the Hon. Signer Bro- 

 glio was charged to report, consented to grant the exclusive privilege of 

 issuing land bonds (cartellc) to the French institute \\bich was to be 

 estabhshed in Ital}- and accepted all the provisions for the facihtation of its 

 working, by the grant of a series of rights and powers, but completely 

 rejected article 2 of the convention in terms of which the Monte dec Paschi 

 of Tuscan}', the Savings Bank of Lombardy and the General Insurance 

 Institution of Venice were to perish. It was a great piece of good fortune 

 that our glorious and time honoured institute, that had passed uninjured 

 through so many changes of Government, was not sacrificed by modern 

 Italy to a monopohst idea in no way justified by the circumstances. 



And not even as amended and modified by the Parliamentary Commiss- 

 ion did the ministerial proposal obtain the consent of the Chamber, but 

 the economic necessity of reasonable provisions in the matter was felt by 

 the v/hole country; so that in September, 1S65, the ^Minister of Agriculture 

 assembled a Congress at Florence of representatives of the Bank of Xaples, 

 the Central Savings Bank of I\Iilan and the Monte de' Paschi of Siena and 

 invited them to undertake the land credit business of the whole mainland 

 of Italy. In fact by the Convention of October 4th., 1865 between the Gov- 

 ernment and the above institutions, the Bank of ISaples undertook to 

 conduct land credit business in Southern, the Monte de' Paschi in Central 

 and the Savings Bank of Milan in Northern Italy. Next year the Opera 

 Pia of St. Paul of Turin, founded in the seventeenth century and the 

 Savings Bank of Bologna adhered to the convention. This territorial dis- 

 tribution of land credit was then finally approved and organized by law 

 of June 14th., 1866, in accordance \^'ith which the principle was extended to 

 Sicily, 1870, Sardinia, 1872 and to the Province of Rome in 1873. From 

 this first system of regions, later on advance was made in the law of Feb- 

 ruary, 1885 to the national system, pOwer being given to the above institutes 

 to conduct business in any part of the kingdom a.nd others being authorized 

 to undertake it under given conditions. Finally, by the laws of July 17th., 

 1890 and May 6th., 1891, an Italian Land Credit Institute was fovmded, 

 with a capital of 100,000 frs. in shares, v%hich really assumed a national 

 character, while the other institutes again became regional. 



The land credit department of the Monte de' Paschi at first made very 

 slov; progress. The new form of credit had inspired great hopes throughout 

 Italy, which very soon gave place to sad disappointments : the lack of a 

 uniform cadastre und the difiiculty of proving mortgages, v.hich made 

 the procedure intricate, laborious and very expensive, caused the refusal 



