144 HUNGARY 



lenders ; but even they too often found, when 

 they required to raise a loan to meet their agri- 

 cultural needs, that they had to pay for it 40, 45, 

 or even 50 per cent. 



To the most far-seeing of Hungarian patriots 

 who were watching the course of events at home 

 and abroad, it was evident there was an absolute 

 need to safeguard the agricultural interests of 

 the country by putting within the reach of the 

 peasant farmers the same advantage of an easy 

 co-operative credit as had been secured by the 

 larger landowners. The subject was discussed 

 at a conference held at Budapest in 1885, and it 

 was resolved to take action. But the very im- 

 poverishment of the peasants in the " congested 

 districts " of the North-east made it impossible 

 to start operations there, the people being unable 

 to provide the means which would constitute 

 the necessary capital, and the first agricultural 

 co-operative bank in Hungary for peasant 

 farmers was set up, in 1887, by Count Alexander 

 Karolyi, in the comparatively well-to-do county 

 of Pest, where there was a population of some 

 million and a half of people. 



But when twenty village banks had been 

 established the necessity arose for a reconsidera- 

 tion of the position. In the richer districts the 

 local residents were dissatisfied with the rate of 



