THE ACTIVITY OF THE STATE LAND BANK FOR THE NOBILITY 59 



Besides this capital the Bank of the Nobility disposed at the end ot 

 1915 of real estate of the total value of 1,311,800 roubles, plus other and va- 

 rious assets amounting to 17,318,586 roubles, and also of a special com- 

 memorative capital of ten million roubles. 



To sum up : during 1915 the Bank of the Nobilitj^ notably reduced 

 those of its transactions on which the crisis due to the war had an unfa- 

 vourable influence. 



There was an important diminution in the bank's loans, a notable 

 diminution in its emission of bonds (89,948,800 roubles in 1913, 70,138,500 

 roubles in 1914 and 19,337,700 roubles in 1915) ; a fall in the current value 

 of bonds (90.5 per cent, of their nominal value in 1913, 81 to 90 per cent, 

 in 1914, and 75.2 to 81.625 P^'' cent, in 1915) ; an important decrease in 

 amortization (12,490,703 roubles in 1913, 10,156,811 roubles in 1914 and 

 3.552,577 roubles in 1915) ; and a decrease in the extent of land mortgaged 

 (this increased by 163,546 deciatines in 1914 and decreased by 78,330 decia- 

 tines in 1915). On the other hand there was a very notable increase in the 

 amount of unpaid interest. 



It follows on the preceding data that the bank's mortgage business 

 tends to diminish, and that 1915 was marked by too sudden a movement 

 in accordance wdth this general tendenc3^ 



It also follows that the percentage of renewed mortgages tends con- 

 stantly to increase, and this is important. In the mass uf the business it is 

 these renewals and the complementary mortgages which prevail. This is 

 because in the large majority of cases loans to the nobility served not to 

 improve their farms but to meet expenses of another kind. Thus with all 

 the facilities granted mortgages have on the whole aggravated the condi- 

 tion of properties. They marked very often the first stage towards liquida- 

 tion, towards the passage of a property to the ownership of persons outside 

 the hereditary nobility. 



