37-l< PROVISION 01' BORROWING FACILITIES. 



dispense with searches in Registration offices ; (4) their power of 

 making the smallest loans and of undertaking operations, however 

 petty, in consonance with village custom and individual needs ; in 

 fact, of giving preference to small business ; (5) their ability to dispense 

 with any prior general liquidation of debts such as has been demanded 

 as a preliminary to the establishment even of Taluk banks, they 

 would ascertain in each case the borrower's prior debts, arbitrate with 

 the creditor for a favourable settlement for cash down, pay down the 

 sum settled, and accept the debt as due to themselves ; (6) their 

 ability to work cheaply, almost gratuitously, and thus to provide cheap 

 credit ; (7) their retention of local capital and of all profits thereon 

 within the village, and, in the case of co-operative societies, their 

 retention of all profits for the members and borrowers ; (8) their 

 ability to act as agents and brokers for their members in the sale of 

 produce and purchase of necessaries ; (9) their capacity of acting as 

 village granaries, lending grain for maintenance and seed in ordinary 

 years from their own resources, and, in times of distress, from those 

 resources supplemented by State or other grants ; (10) their ability to 

 act as intermediaries between the State and the individual, whether in 

 matters of loans for land improvements, cattle, &c., or in other 

 agricultural or industrial developments, or in times of seasonal stress ; 

 (11) their power of iniluencing borrowers towards the true use of 

 credit, and of watching the utilization of loans in accordance with 

 contract; (12) their ability to prevent fraudulent defaults and 

 collu-ive sales of property, and, in cases of default, to utilize 

 advantageously tl e small properties accepted as securities for loans ; 

 (13) their tendency in the case of Co-operative banks to group 

 themselves into unions for mutual development, instruction, inspection, 

 and audit ; (14) their steady, educative influence in matters of thrift, 

 association, and self-help by their continuous presence in the village, 

 by their continuous object lessons, and by their frequent, though 

 small, calls upon the activity, thought, and service of their meVnbers ; 

 (15) their tendency to develop high forms both of individual capacity, 

 of public life, and of national character. 



These village banks, then, may assume several forms : theV may, 

 as Joint Stock banks, imitate the ' minuscules societies anonymes par 

 actions ' the tiny joint stock banks of Switzerland, with their 

 little knot of capitalists and their share capital of a few hundred ' 

 pounds, they may possibly assume the form of the State aided 



