84 FRANCE - CREDIT 



the depositors who entrust their money to it at a moderate interest, because 

 they place full confidence only in its banks (such as the post office banks) , 

 and the producers, the small agriculturists, uho need money at a low rate 

 and, sometimes, owing to the concentration of the banking business in a 

 small number of the larger institutions, do not find credit banks adapted 

 to their requirements. 



It is just with a view to balancing the growing necessities of the 

 public finances and those of production, that legislative and economic prac- 

 tice is following different methods in different countries, nothwithstanding 

 the different ways in which the savings banks are organised in them. 



In Germany there are no Government savings banks (post office banks) 

 and the ordinary banks have above all adhered to the principle of localis- 

 ation of investments. As shown by statistics published in this Bulletin (i) 

 4,600,000,000 marks (that is 39.58%) were in 1910 invested in urban mort- 

 gages ; 2,300,000,000 (19.87 %) in rural mortgages, 2,700,000,000 (23.63%) 

 in certificates to bearer ; 399,000,000 marks (3.45 %) in loans on bills of 

 exchange, pledges, certificates of debts ; 1,500,000,000 (13.47 %) iii loans 

 to public intitutions and in other investments. About 60 % of the capital 

 is thus invested in mortgage loans. Now, the Prussian law of December 

 23rd., 1912 obliges public savings banks to invest 15 % or 20 % or 25 % 

 of their deposits, according to the greater or less importance of the banks 

 themselves, in bonds to bearer, which offer guarantee sufficient for the 

 investment of minors' capital. Three fifths of the obligations must be 

 represented by German Imperial or Prussian bonds. 



This tendency to reconcile, by means of the distribution of investments, 

 the interests of the State with local interests, and of public economy with 

 private, has been pointed out by us in various articles concerning 

 savings banks in different countries, as Prussia, Japan, the United States 

 of America, Switzerland and Bulgaria. There is no need to dwell further 

 on this subject. 



{1) Bulletin of Economic and Social Intelliience. February, 1913. Mortgage lyoans of the 

 Prussian Savings Banks and their Influence on the Dismortgaging ot Rural I^anded Property. 



