GERMANY - CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 



consumers' societies, 489 societies for the sale of agricultural products, 445 

 societies of labour and production, and sixty-seven mixed societies. 



The General Raiffeisen Federation underwent several changes in 1915. 

 Eighty-four new indirect members, of which forty-eight were co-operative 

 credit societies, adhered to it ; and twenty-three members, eight of them 

 co-operative credit societies, ceased to belong to it. The net increase was 

 thus one of sixty-one members, forty of them co-operative credit societies 

 and twenty-one of them co-operative societies of other types. The net 

 increase was one of 137 in 1914, and one of 196 in 1913. 



The changes were as follows in as far as thej^ concerned direct members : 

 the two Mecklenburgs separated themselves from the district federation of 

 Berlin and a special federation was founded in them; two new co-operative 

 stores were founded. 



The business of all these co-operative societies has been much affected 

 by the war. In the annual report the management signalizes the following 

 events as having had a great influence on their acti^dty : 



1. Economic activity and the demand for credit have diminished, 

 owing to mobilization, to the economic blockade which has cut off Ger- 

 many from foreign markets, to the reduction of purchases to the absolutely 

 necessary minimum., etc : 



2. The increased circulation of paper which rose from its level of 4.8 

 thousand milHon marks (i) at the beginning of the war to one of 6.9 million 

 marks at the end of 1915. 



3. The reduced demand for credit and the increased circulation of 

 paper have caiised uninvested large capital to be sent to the banks instead 

 of to co-operative credit societies. This has disturbed the equilibrium of 

 the relations between the banks and their clients. Debtors' accounts have 

 diminished and those of creditors have increased. In order to invest this 

 money which comes to them profitably the banks have lent considerable 

 sums to the communes and the State. 



4. State intervention in the economic life of private citizens has no- 

 ticeably increased, especially as regards the trade in foodstuffs. This is 

 monopolized by the State, or rather by institutions created to such end, of 

 which at the end of 1915 there were about thirty. The^^ have used the co- 

 operative stores which has increased the amount of business done by these. 



5. Mention should finalty be made of the constant or temporary in- 

 terruption of the work of co-operative societies within the war zone. 



Having made this general review we will now give a more detailed 

 account of the different types of co-operative societies. 



(i) I mark = about ii^jid at par. 



