76 



JAPAN - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IN GENERAL 



Industrial Banks were formerlj' authorized to issue debentures to the 

 amount of five times their paid-up capital ; but the new regulations seek 

 to safeguard their stability by imposisng greater restrictions on the issue of 

 debentures, and the maximum amount of these ma}^ not now exceed the 

 amount of long-term loans repayable in annual instalments, and they must 

 be concelled as the loans are repaid. 



Thanks to the new regulations and the gradual progress of industry and 

 agriculture the Agricultural and Industrial Banks have been able to furnish 

 much larger funds to the enterprises they can support. Their business in 

 1914 was however less good than in 1913 owing to the financial lull caused 

 by the European war and the depression in the prices for rice. The number 

 of branch offices of the six banks passed from 36 in 1913 to 37 in 1914, the 

 amount of the paid-up capital from 1,467,945 yen to 1,469,890 yen, the 

 amount of debentures issued from 2,990,000 yen to 2,910,000 yen, the re- 

 serve fund from 479,339 yen to 486,682 yen, the balance of the deposits from 

 4,599,926 3^en to 4,718,821 yen, the balance of the loans from 6,280,105 

 yen to 8,028,558 yen, the balance of discounted bills from 5,303,517 yen 

 to 3,526,090 yen and the profits from 215,649 yen to 125,409 yen. 



The agricultural methods of the Korean people are rather elementary 

 and loans for agricultural or industrial objects did not at first reach any con- 

 siderable amount. Of late however, and especially since the annexation 

 of Korea by Japan, an increasing demand has arisen for funds for irriga- 

 tion, works of civil engineering and other agricultural enterprises ; and loans 

 made for these purposes have therefore reached a considerable sum, as is 

 shown by the following table : 



The enormous increase in 1914 of agricultural loans, especially of those 

 repayable at fixed periods, is remarkable. 



b) People's Bank Associations. — These associations were first estab- 

 lished in 1907 as auxiUary organs to the Agricultural and Industrial Bank, 

 They numbered 227 at the end of 1914 as against 208 at the end of 1913, but 

 their total membership was 60,322 at the former and '80,193 at the latter 



