PERFECTING THE SYSTEM 117 



thereon, from an agricultural standpoint (loans 

 being granted only for agricultural purposes, and 

 not for personal use), but he arranges for the 

 goods in question to be delivered through the 

 syndicate to the borrower, who, himself, in no 

 case handles the actual money nominally lent 

 to him. 



So the guarantee is complete. The members 

 of the Milage Bank themselves know whether 

 or not the applicant can be trusted ; they have 

 the word of the professor that the proposed 

 expenditure is a wise one ; and they have the 

 certainty both that the purchase will be effected 

 in the best and in the cheapest market, and that 

 the money they lend will be used for the purpose 

 for which it is granted. 



In this way the travelling professor is a direct 

 bond of union between the Savings Bank, the 

 Milage Bank, and the agricultural association, 

 while constituting in himself a peregrinating 

 bureau of agricultural information, of which all 

 who will are free to take advantage. So we get 

 the various stages of the Italian system : the 

 savings of the toilers in the cities are paid into 

 the Savings Banks or the People's Banks ; from 

 thence they pass on to the Village Banks to offer 

 a vivifying agricultural credit to workers who 

 would otherwise find themselves left to the 



