148 HUNGARY 



State itself took shares to the value of £40,000, 

 and claimed the right to exercise a controlling 

 voice in the general management. Individual 

 sympathisers with the scheme were allotted 

 £80,000 worth of shares ; but any dividend 

 which may be paid to them must not exceed 

 4 per cent., and they are to be bought out as 

 the funds allow, so that eventually the only 

 proprietors of Hungary's Central Co-operative 

 Credit Bank will be the co-operative associations 

 and the State, the share of the latter represent- 

 ing about one-tenth of the whole. 



It now became possible to extend operations 

 to the congested districts in the mountains to 

 the North-east ; but there had to be a further 

 trial of strength with the professional money- 

 lenders. In one village, for instance, the leaders 

 of the movement held a meeting of the peasants 

 to induce them to start a village co-operative 

 bank, which the central organization would now 

 be able to support. The peasants took a few 

 days to consider the matter. They then gave 

 a reply in the negative. Inquiry showed that 

 most of the villagers were indebted to a group 

 of money-lenders who had set up a local bank 

 of their own and now threatened them that 

 if they agreed to the starting of a co-operative 

 credit bank in the place they would at once 



