380 PllO VISION OF BORROWING FACILITIES. 



repayable in small, fixed annual instalments (with power to make 

 additional repayments on giving notice of from three to six months), 

 Sums as low as 15 are lent by at least six of these Banks ; and one 

 Bank grants loans as small as 2 10s. The rates of interest usually 

 range at the present time from 3i to 4 per cent. ; and there is, in 

 addition, an annual charge for cost of administration (usually J to i 

 per cent.). Sinking fund payments are compulsory in most cases, 

 and the minimum amounts are variously fixed at J, J or 1 per cent. 

 Repayment may be made by the presentation to a Bank of its bonds 

 bearing the same rate of interest and the same nominal value as bonds 

 issued to the mortgagor in respect of a loan. 



These Mortgage Credit Banks are usually exempted from stamp 

 duties and court fees. They have also the advantage of the co-opera- 

 tion of the local revenue authorities, or other public officials (e.g., 

 officials of public savings banks). Some banks appoint private 

 persons resident in different parts of their areas as their agents, in 

 order to be in a position to obtain further information with respect 

 to borrowers. They are thus enabled not only to secure the necessary 

 local information and supervision, but can also bring credit facilities 

 within the convenient reach of farmers throughout their areas. It 

 is worthy of notice that these Banks do not hesitate to endeavour to 

 attract clients, whether borrowers or depositors, by advertisements in 

 daily and other papers. 



There are in Germany 37 Joint Slock Mortgage Banks (excluding 

 the Hessian State Joint Stock Mortgage Bank), which are commercial 

 undertakings, constituted, in accordance with the Imperial Mortgage 

 Bank Act of 1899, for the purpose of lending money on mortgage 

 security. Instead of being associations of borrowers, like the 

 Landschaften, they are associations of lenders, which were largely 

 modelled upon the Credit Fonder of France. The last-named was 

 founded in 1852; of the 37 German Banks one was established in 

 1858, 27 in the period 1862-73, and 8 in the period 1894-96!; But, 

 unlike the Credit Fonder, which possesses a monopoly for the whole 

 of France, the German Mortgage Banks represent a decentralised 

 system, in which any of the Banks is free to extend its business over 

 the Empire. Their business has greatly developed : thus in 1880 

 the total of their outstanding loans covered by mortgages on urban 

 and rural property amounted to 77,385,000, in 1900 to 337,882,000 

 and in 1911 to 554,870,000. 



