24 INFORMATION REIvATING TO CO-OPERATION AND ASSOCIATION 



normal course of dealing with them was resumed, such investments being 

 preferred as were not only safest but also most readily realized. The re- 

 sults of this prudent management are evident in the balance-sheet, of 

 which the principal figures can be resumed as follows : 



Shareholder's property : 1,262,704 liras — including 443,000 Uras 

 in share capital and ordinary reserve, 136,000 Uras in repaid shares and 

 profits, and a special fund of 683,000 hras. 



Deposits : 21,453,391 liras — including small savings amounting to 

 more than ten millions, five millions of ordinary savings deposits, more 

 than five millions on current account and 776,000 liras in interest-bearing 

 bonds. 



Altogether resources amount to about twenty-two and three quarter 

 millions, as to which sum the following investments should be noted : 

 securities on 31 December, ten and a half million; the bank's title-deeds, 

 more than seven million ; advances remaining, four million hras. Net 

 profits amounted to 65,784.50 liras; and of them 18,767 liras were assigned 

 to the shareholders, namely 5 per cent, on their shares which is the maxi- 

 mum allowed by the by-laws, and 37,149 liras to the fund destined to guaran- 

 tee values, while the rest was placed at the council's disposition for the 

 employees' thrift fund, and for renumerations, allocations, etc. 



The Popular Mutual Bank of Teramo (i). — This is one of the oldest 

 establishments for popular mutual credit, having originated in 1881. The 

 difficulties which it had to overcome in 1915 were not trifling. They did 

 not however prevent it from developing an activity beneficent both to the 

 city and to its own clients : it placed large means at the disposal of the 

 commune for the acquisition of grain ; it repaid to depositors in less than 

 ten months a million and a half liras, and it invested in national loans — all 

 this without neglecting local needs and those of small commerce, in the 

 interests of which the rate of discount was always kept within moderate 

 limits — ; and finally it strengthened its banking business by a consider- 

 able sum of net profits. 



To resume the bank's enterprise in this year we will give the following 

 figmes from its balance-sheet : 



The total capital amounted to 634,837 liras, including 150,000 liras 

 of capital in shares (3,000 shares of 50 liras each held b}' 1,234 sharehold- 

 ers), 75,000 liras of ordinary reserve, 397,000 liras of extraordinary re- 

 serve and a reserve of 13,000 liras to provide against oscillations in values. 



Deposits on current account amounted to 146,000 liras and savings 

 deposits to 2,283,463 liras. There was a reduction of 789,000 liras in the 

 savings deposits, as compared with the preceding year. Not only the 

 state of war, but also the diminished remittances of emigrants, the local 

 agricultural crisis caused by the failure of the harvest and the vintage 

 which obliged agriculturists to withdraw their deposits, and finally the 

 issue of the national loans, were responsible for the decline in saving. 



(i) I,a Banca Mutua Popolare di Teramo. 



