SECURITY FOR OUTLAY 239 



to town properties, with the result that out of 6,946,485,204.11 francs 

 of money lent out on mortgage security, 5,521,425,799.59 francs has 

 gone to urban mortgages, 20,107,200 francs to " mixed " properties, 

 and only 1,404,952,204.52 francs to " rural " domains, so far as 

 mortgage credit comes into account. 



The service rendered by it was originally much on a par with that 

 done by the landschaften. Mortgages were granted (as they still 

 are) up to half the ascertained value of properties, rural or urban — 

 in some cases as in that of forests, only up to a third — for terms 

 running, at the borrower's option, either from one to nine years — 

 repayable in lump sums — or else from ten years to seventy-five — 

 in which latter case the principal was made repayable (as it still is) 

 by amortissement — the consideration being bonds which, like the 

 mortgages themselves — the amount issuable being limited to the 

 amount of mortgage capital actually out (but keeping well imder it 

 at the present time) — ran for from ten to seventy-five years. To 

 make the bonds more attractive to a public rather disposed to take a 

 sporting chance prizes were and still are accorded to lucky numbers. 

 In 1879 this system was modified to the extent of payment of the 

 mortgage loan being made in money and the issue of bonds being 

 treated as a separate transaction. Unquestionably, as a mortgage 

 credit institution the Credit fonder has rendered very valuable 

 services, but within the range rather of large properties than of small, 

 as appears from the fact that within the entire period of the ( 'n'dif 

 foncier's operation, from 1853 to the end of 1918, it had, among 

 6,946,485,264.11 francs lent out, disbursed only 164,879,609.88 

 francs in loans not exceeding 5,000 francs. Half the sum lent out 

 was lent on mortgages of 100,000 francs and over. 



An application calling for somewhat closer examination is that 

 which the landschaft principle has found in America, the United 

 States leading the way to a great extent under the inspiration 

 derived from the inquiry into European mortgage credit practices 

 carried out by the " American Commission " in 1913. In fact, in 

 his most interesting exposition of the provisions of the " Federal 

 Farm Loan Act " given at the " Fourth Congress on Marketing and 

 Farm Credits," held at Chicago in December, 1916, fche representa- 

 tive of the Federal Farm Loan Bureau in the United States Treasury 

 Department, Mr. James B. Morman — who is in charge of the busini 

 — speaking officially as the mouthpiece of his Department, plainly 

 stated that the aim of the authors of the Act had been to embody in 

 it the leading principles severally of the German landachaften and 

 the co-operative societies of the Raiffeisen type, which are, like the 



