PROVISION OP BORROWING FACILITIES. 383 



1900 the corresponding figures were 257,000,000 and 442,000,000. 

 It may be noted in passing that the deposits of English savings banks, 

 Post Office and other, did not amount in 1909 to 30 per cent, of the 

 German total. While German public savings banks do not usually 

 accept deposits of less than one shilling, the maximum deposits 

 receivable in respect of any one account often reach a very high 

 figure. In Prussia in 1909 there were 395 out of 1,506 public savings 

 banks which fixed no limit, and for 291 banks the limit ranged from 

 500 to 2,500. As a result, these banks tend to be used as deposit 

 banks by the well-to-do classes. Their attractiveness consists not 

 only in the security afforded, but in the relatively high rate of interest 

 paid. Being institutions independent of a central authority they are 

 not obliged to accord a rate of interest fixed for all savings banks, 

 but can fix and vary their rates according to the local circumstances. 

 Thus some find it necessary and profitable to pay 3f or 4 per cent., 

 while others obtain ample deposits at 3 and 3J per cent. The magni- 

 tude of German savings bank deposits is also to be explained on 

 other grounds. Although private banks, both large and small, are 

 very numerous in Germany, great joint stock deposit banks have not 

 as yet attained the same development as in the United Kingdom, 

 where, at the end of 1910, the number of branch banks amounted 

 to 7,151, whereas the total of branches, agensies and deposit offices of 

 large banks in Germany in 1911 amounted to about 1,200. Invest- 

 ment by small capitalists in the shares of joint stock and limited 

 liability companies being less easy owing to the fact that shares of 

 the former may not be less than 50, or of the latter 25, their money 

 is deflected to savings banks. Private insurance, so common as a 

 form of investment of savings in England, does not appear to have 

 developed to the same extent in Germany. 



The spread of communal and district banks, which serve more 

 particularly the rural population, has been promoted by the Central 

 Authorities, especially those responsible for agricultural matters, 

 who have also constantly urged these banks to adapt their conditions 

 of loan to suit the farming class. The special advantage of these 

 banks' is that they provide farmers with a public mortgage credit 

 institution in their immediate vicinity, and facilitate personal rela- 

 tions between borrower and lender. As a consequence of its local 

 knowledge a savings bank may generally dispense with a social 

 valuation and its attendant costs, which, for a central credit institution, 



