PROVISION OF BORROWING FACILITIES. 405 



Halle) special courses of lectures on co-opfration by various professors 

 are given each year. 



Larger landowners have also taken a considerable part in the 

 extension of the village banks, not only by promoting their 

 establishment and accepting office, but also to a certain extent by 

 depositing with and borrowing from them. The chairmen of the 

 committee of management of 50 out of 305 Pomeranian societies in 

 one year was a large landowner ; in another year out of 720 

 Silesian societies there were 209 large owners holding this office. In 

 the less onerous position of chairman of the board of supervision they 

 are even more numerously represented ; and they are very generally 

 found as ordinary members of both organs of administration of a 

 co-operative society in those parts of the country, that is chiefly in 

 the eastern provinces of Prussia and in the Kingdom of Saxony, 

 where large landowners constitute a noteworthy proportion of all 

 landholders. 



Various reasons account for the more limited participation of 

 large holders in the society as depositors anjl borrowers. Although 

 limited liability is regarded by many very competent authorities in 

 Germany as most suitable in the case of societies which contain a 

 considerable proportion of large holders, unlimited liability has not 

 (since 1889) been a chief obstacle : the difficulty lies mainly in the 

 dislike of a social superior to reveal his position to a committee of 

 two or three of his smaller neighbours or to submit an application for 

 credit to them, as well as in the difficulty for a small local society to 

 grant credit to such members to the extent that may be required, 

 without exhausting their own working capital to the prejudice of 

 their other members, or without risking an unduly high proportion 

 with a single member. In Pomerania and Saxony (province of), 

 as well as in Silesia, a considerable number of large landholders are 

 reported as transacting business with the local societies ; in Pomerania 

 out of 376 local societies, all with limited liability, there were 107 

 which fixed their maximum total loans to individuals at from over 

 1,000 up to 2,500, 27 at from over 2,500 up to 5,000, and 9 at 

 froip over 5,000 up to 10,000. In many cases outside Pomerania, 

 Saxony, and Silesia large landowners obtain their agricultural requi- 

 sites through the local society of which they are members, and in 

 this way, but seldom otherwise, they often obtain credit from co- 

 operative credit societies. It may be conceded that local credit 



