ITALIAN VIEWS ON THRIFT 107 



resulting from production represent financial re- 

 sources which ought to be re-invested in pro- 

 duction, and especially in those forms thereof 

 that are included in agricultural operations. 

 Provided that adequate guarantees are given 

 for its security, the surplus money of industrial 

 workers— who are often at a loss to know how 

 to invest it profitably — could not, it is claimed, 

 be put to better advantage than in the formation 

 of funds on which cultivators of the soil, in the 

 neighbourhood of the towns where the money 

 has been earned, could draw for the purpose of 

 facilitating operations on land that requires 

 capital for its development ; while those opera- 

 tions would, in turn, improve the conditions of 

 the industrials by ensuring them (apart from the 

 mere payment of interest) more employment 

 through the greater demand for agricultural 

 implements, etc. 



From this point of view the representatives of 

 the " Italian system " are entirely opposed to the 

 French idea of thrift, under which the toiler who 

 saves a few francs as the result of his operations 

 will invest them in Government stock, getting a 

 modest return thereon, but sending the money 

 out of the district in which it has been earned, 

 and encouraging, it may be, his Government to 

 spend money more freely because of the evidence 



