THE ACTIVITY OF THE STATE EAND BANK FOR THE NOBILITY 49 



If this figure be compared with the number of mortgage loans made by 

 the bank in 1915, namely 470, a serious retrogression in mortgage business 

 will be observed. This was, as the report states, a result of the war, which 

 influenced the whole of this year. It also depended to some extent on 

 the ordinance of the Committee of Finances of '23 July 1914 which Hmits 

 mortgage business. 



The following table may give a more precise idea of the general de- 

 velopment in recent years of this bank's mortgage business : 



Table I. •- Mortgage Business of the Bank of the Nobility 

 from iqiT to 1915 (in roubles). 



Estimated value of 



Niunber Area mortgaged properties Sums lent 



of mortgaged ' - — — " " ~^ "" ' ^ — '^ — - ' ^ 



Year loans — total by deciatine total by deciatine 



deciatines(i) roubles (2) roubles roubles roubles 



1911 1355 1,101,685 152,166,685 138 88,842,600 81 



1912 i486 1,195,873 190,358,777 159 109,3x4,100 92 



1913 1425 1.536,873 253,726,195 165 146,082,000 95 



1914 1292 1,123,808 197,590,208 176 114,420,400 T02 



1915 470 40>9O- 71.553.744 144 4^,827,300 84 



This table shows that far fewer loans were made in 1915 than in 1914, 

 and fewer by still more than during the years before the war. That which 

 however chiefly characterizes 1915 is the sudden interruption in the con- 

 stant rise of the average estimated value of the deciatine. The fall of its 

 average value is seen to be more remarkable if it be compared t6 the special 

 estimated average value which continued to rise even in 1915. Thus in 

 1911 this was 105 roubles a deciatine, in 1912 it was 125 roubles, 159 rou- 

 bles in 1913 and 160 roubles in 1915. As the normal estimate is based on 

 the average cost of land in a locality, and the special estimate on a spe- 

 cial and detailed survey of the properties concerned, the different courses 

 of the normal and the special estimates are an index to the different influence 

 which the economic crisis caused by the war has had on farms in general, 

 which in their large majority belong to the peasants, and on the property 

 of the hereditary nobility. The war has deprived the peasants of a large 

 number of labourers whom it has been impossible to replace. Hence has 

 arisen the diminution in the average estimated value of lands, an important 

 percentage of which it has been impossible to cultivate or to cultivate 

 adequately. The needed labour on the lands of the nobility was however 

 partly supplied bj^ prisoners of war and in some provinces by the forced 

 labour of peasants. 



During 1915 the increase in the special estimated value was however 

 slight in comparison with its increase in preceding years, and this fact and 



(i) I deciatine = 2.698 acres. 

 (2) I rouble = 2.1333s. at par. 



