114 ITALIAN SOMALILAXD - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL 



the union would be constituted b}^ the amount of subscribed and paid-up 

 shares, and each family's guaranteeing deposit of 5,000 liras. The colony's 

 government might grant subsidies to the union during the first five j-ears. 

 Five per cent, on sums to the credit of the cultivators in their current 

 accounts would be paid to them by way of encouragement and 3 per cent, 

 charged on the sums with which they were debited. Eventually the rate 

 of interest on the debit and credit accounts would be the same. 



All products of the soil would be delivered to the union which would 

 have the necessary warehouses and the other accommodation in which they 

 could be prepared for commercial or industrial use. They would be uti- 

 lized in their entirety, by the sale of primary and secondary products in their 

 natural state, or b}' the submission to essi cation or other processes of pro- 

 ducts (vegetables, fruit, etc.) which could not travel or be kept for any length 

 of time. The quantities delivered would be entered in the current account 

 books, at prices fixed by the administrative council in agreement with the 

 director, a supplementarj^ quota of au}^ larger price ^delded by sale being 

 added when necessary. 



Thus the agricultural union would discharge to some extent several 

 roles. It would supply first a commercial agency for the purchase and the 

 distribution "to members of live stock, agricultural machines, seeds, plants 

 and other agricultural requisites ; secondly a bank for receiving guarantee 

 and savings deposits and making agricultural avances, like the Italian agri- 

 cultural banks ; thirdl}^ a warehouse for ever>i;hing needed to feed and clothe 

 the cultivators' families ; and fourthly an industrial co-operative pro- 

 ducers' societ}^ for the commercial conversion or preparation of the products 

 of the soil. 



This union would last for ten years, and would then be renewed in 

 a form modified as experience would dictate. 



The by-laws of the union should be adapted to local conditions and the 

 laws in force in the colony. The scheme has some further provisions as to 

 the purchase and letting of cultivated land after the first five years of cul- 

 tivation. But this part of the scheme seems to us to have been superse- 

 ded since article 15 of the rules for developing the lands in Italian Somali- 

 land established that concessions would be made for a term of ninety-nine 

 years. 



The financial part of the scheme presupposes an expenditure on 

 installation of half a million liras, and one of 42,000 liras a j^ear on 

 the working which might after five years be reduced to 32.000 liras. 



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There is no doubt that a prosperous future awaits Italian Somaliland 

 we have seen what elements of wealth the colony contains, what new 

 factors of production and of wealth might be cultivated or called forth 



