FRANCE. 



AGRICUIyTURAI, PRODUCE WARRANTS. 



OFFICIAI, SOURCE: 



Report on agricultural Produce Warrants, presented to the President of the Re- 

 public by the Minister of Agriculture, on December 29th., 1913. 



The law of July i8th., 1898 on agricultural warrants belongs to the 

 group of those by means of which Parliament and Government have at- 

 tempted to place at the disposal of the peasant landowners all suitable means 

 for the cosolidation of their farms, in harmony with the development of 

 the national agriculture. 



The object of this law was by creating a system of credit on pledge for 

 the advantage of the farmers, to adapt to their requirements an institution 

 which has long been of the greatest service in commerce. 



In spite of all the hopes this innovation legitimately gave rise to, it 

 remained, however, for many years quite without effect. At the end of 

 August, 1905 agricultural warrants had only been issued in 64 departments 

 for an amount of 35,378,590 frs. 



Impressed by the small results of the law, ParUament endeavoured, by 

 law of April 30th., 1906 to reduce the number of its formalities, its delays 

 and cost and to give the lender additional security. 



The Government last year considered that sufficient time had passed 

 since the promulgation of this latter law for the institution of a general en- 

 quiry in order to learn how far the new legislation had contributed to 

 facilitate the use of agricultural warrants among the peasants. 



The results of this enquiry will be found summarised in the following 

 table. 



