INSTITUTES FOR RURAL hA^D CREDIT 55 



From this table we see that the amount of the land bonds issued by 

 the Prussian Landschaften in 1912 was about 3,000,000,000 mks. (i) It must 

 be observed that of this amount about 2,500,000,000 mks. were issued by 

 the Ivandschaften of the six eastern provinces (nos. 1-9). There are various 

 reasons to explain this. However, the most important is that the Ivand- 

 schaften of these provinces have already a long history and also that the 

 large landed estates, very frequent in the Bast, avail themselves largely of the 

 credit the Landschaften provide. On the other hand, some of the Western 

 Provinces, either Uke Hesse Nassau and the Rhine Province, have no land- 

 schaft, or, like Hanover, only institutes of very Umited importance (nos 13- 

 15). It must be also remembered that the land holders of the Western Pro- 

 vinces, for the most part peasant farmers, are but little in debt in compar- 

 ison with what we find in the East. In the Western Provinces, owing to the 

 great abundance of capital, the rate of interest on private mortgages is 

 far lower than in the East, so that there is no potent and imperative mot- 

 ive there to transform private mortgages into mortgages to the credit 

 institutes, in order to realise by this operation a saving in the amount 

 of interest to be paid. Finally, the Savings Banks, which here have at their 

 disposal considerable funds, have in these districts carried on a large credit 

 business for the benefit of rural land holders. From the figures published 

 in the Prussian Statistical Yearbook for 1912, on page 366, we see that the 

 Savings Banks of the six eastern provinces had all together only lent 

 581,800,000 marks in 1911 on rural mortgages, and of this 157,400,000 marks 

 under the form of credits redeemable in instalments, whilst in the western 

 provinces the loans on mortgage granted by savings banks amounted to 

 1,857,600,000 marks, with 484,800,000 marks under the form of credits 

 redeemable in instalments. 



When we consider the progress of the lyandschaften, we see it has been 

 very different in different cases. Some seem to have reached a period of 

 arrest or of slow decline, whilst others are quite flourishing. This is princip- 

 ally because some of the lyandschaften limit their field of action to granting 

 credit to large landowners, who have now almost completely satisfied 

 their needs for it, whilst other Landschaften lend in preference to small 

 farmers. In their case, the conversion of private mortgages, less 



(i) The amount of the laud bonds issued by the Zentrallandschaft is also included in the fig- 

 ures given for the institutes for account of which they were issued. On December ist., 1912, it 

 was 1,141,000 marks for the Westpreussische Landschaft (West Prussian lyandschaft); 

 165,266,000 marks for the Kur-und Neumdrkische Ritterscftaftl. KredUinstitut (Credit Institute 

 for the lyanded Estates of the Nobles in Kurmark and Neumark); 146,202,000 marks for the 

 Neues Brandenbur?,isches KredUinstitut (New Brandenburg Credit Institute); 4,351,000 mrks. 

 for the Pommersche Landschaft (Pomeranian Landschaft); 7,240,000 marks for the Neue 

 Pommersche Landschaft (New Pomeranian Landschaft); 78.963.000 marks for the Land- 

 schaft der Provinz Sachsen (Landschaft of the Province of Saxony); 83,455,000 marks for the 

 Schleswi'^ Holsteinische Landschaft (Schleswig Holstein Landschaft) and 258,000 marks for the 

 Kreditinstitut fitr die Oder und Nieder Lausitz (Credit Institute for Upi)er and I^wer Lusatia). 



