ORGANISATION OF SAVINGS BANKS AND TIIE INVESTMENT OF THEIR CAPITAL 73 



same time the institutions for encouraging, collecting, and investing savings 

 have multiplied. vSaving is no longer the expression of individual forethought; 

 it has become the result of collective effort. The working and lower mid- 

 dle classes put their collected savings into leagues for defence of their inter- 

 ests, mutual aid societies, co-operative societies for credit, distribution, 

 building, etc., the moneyed classes into insurance companies and banks. 



It becomes, however, more and more difficult to follow these various 

 forms of accumulation, and to draw up statistics of the annual saving 

 made by a nation. Nor is it always possible in the absence of adequate 

 statistics to calculate the amount of the capital saved every year by the 

 different classes of society, and to study the annual distribution of savings 

 among the various investments. In many countries, Sweden among the 

 rest, means are wanting for investigating questions concerning the interests 

 of agriculture ia. relation to the savings banks. 



In studying the question of saving in vSweden, as we have done in 

 the case of other countries, it will be understood then that we must Umit our- 

 selves to the investigation of those institutions of which the working is 

 directed or may be directed to the benefit of agriculture and the agricultural 

 classes. 



Except the savings banks, the institutions which are most important 

 as collectors of the savings of the people are the people's banks and the de- 

 posit banks instituted by the ordinary banking estabUshments. 



The ordinary and pcstal savings banks and the people's banks are the 

 most important for our purpose, and of these we shall speak more in detail 

 in the following paragraphs. 



For the present we shall confine ourselves to giving a few notes on the 

 savings collected by the ordinary Banksing EstabUshmcnts. These institu- 

 tions, estabHshed as societies limited by shares to carry on real banking 

 business, began in 1877 to compete with the Savings Banks. For the first 

 wenty years the amounts they collected were inconsiderable, but they 

 increased perceptibly during the following years. In 191 1 the savings 

 deposited in the banks limited by shares amounted to 303,107,000 crowns, 

 and the average amount in each bank book was 369 crowTis (i). 



We can not, however, ascertain what classes have contributed to 

 the formation of this capital and to what amount each class has done so, 

 nor what proportion of the sums invested by each brings in a profit. 

 It may, however, be affirmed, in view of the fact that these banks work 

 in industrial and commercial centres, that the savings are made more 

 especially by the urban population, and also that the greater part of 

 the sums deposited by the rural population is absorbed in the business of 

 the urban centres. 



At the close of 1910, the total amount of the loans made by ordinary Bank- 

 ing Establishments with capital collected by them was 1,490,500,000 crowns, 

 947,000,000 crs. of which represented mortgage loans, and about 195,500,000 

 crs. loans on personal guarantee. 



(i) The Swedish cro\\-n of 100 ore is cqurJ at par (o 1.3S9 frano-. 



