WlOVlStOtf OP feOllftOWlNG FACILITIES. 387 



in loans for agricultural purposes. Under the latter heading 

 are included loans for light railways in rural districts, for land 

 improvement, and for the improvement and construction of roads. 

 Loans are usually made to or through non-profit-seeking co-operative 

 societies, employers, or to communes ; seldom to individuals. 

 Mortgage security is generally required, loans are subject to recall 

 at three or six months' notice, and sinking fund payments are 

 obligatory, while facilities for addditional repayments of debt 

 appeared to be allowed. The predominant rates of interest now 

 charged range from 3 to 3| per cent. 



Insurance Companies have invested nearly three-quarters of their 

 funds in mortgages, but only an insignificant proportion in rural 

 mortgages; in 1907 only 790 loans of the total value of 2,435,000 

 were outstanding on rural mortgages, as against 162,710,000 on 

 urban mortgages. Even this small total of transactions is decreasing. 

 Such companies are legally permitted to make loans up to three-fifths 

 or two-thirds of the valuation, but special rules prescribe that they 

 must riot, as a rule, lend over 10,000, and in the case of loans of 

 over 5,000, special valuations must be made. 



From the foregoing summary of the organisation of German 

 mortgage credit it will be seen that German landowners, both 

 large and small, are amply provided with credit agencies which, 

 mainly of a public character and non-profit-seeking, grant loans 

 up to one- half or two-thirds of the valuation on first mortgage 

 at moderate and unchangeable rates of interest, not subject to 

 recall, and repayable by small annual instalments to sinking 

 funds, with facilities to make additional repayments on giving 

 short notice. The Joint Stock Mortgage Banks form an exception 

 in respect of profit-seeking, but the Mortgage Bank Act secures 

 certain important advantages for landowners; and the savings 

 banks, although in theory they are debarred from granting loans 

 not suVject to recall, do in fact lend a considerable amount against 

 reducible mortgages (which are not subject to recall) and, as regards 

 the balance, are seldom forced to exercise their right of recall. 

 Although not aiming at profits, these organisations are able to 

 realise surpluses, the State and other Provincial or District Institutions, 

 as well as the savings banks, contributing considerable sums annually 

 to their guaranteeing authority for public purposes ; while the 

 LamlscJiaflen, especially as a result of ancillary business (e.g., their 



