ig2 FINLAND 



agricultural credit banks of the Raiffeisen type. 

 The organization of this Central Bank was a 

 remarkable event in its way. The capital it was 

 proposed to raise was fixed at £12,000, in shares 

 of £4 each, to be subscribed for by the agri- 

 culturists themselves. The country was then 

 suffering from severe depression, but the sum 

 required was raised in six weeks by 1,360 in- 

 dividuals, of whom 83 per cent, bought only 

 either one or two shares each, and 11 per cent, 

 from three to five shares each. Many of the 

 peasants had great difficulty in raising the sum 

 necessary for the purchase of even one share ; 

 but they made a great effort, being strongly 

 impressed with the good work the proposed 

 Central Bank might do, and applications for 

 single shares came in from every part of the 

 country. The Central Co-operative Bank of 

 Finland is, under these circumstances, regarded 

 by the promoters as "the most democratic in- 

 stitution of the kind in the world." It seems, 

 at least, to have been the most effective means 

 of promoting agriculture yet adopted in Finland. 

 The loans granted by the Central Bank are 

 advanced exclusively to local agricultural banks, 

 and, thanks to its aid (and, also, to the improve- 

 ment in its finances brought about by an annual 

 subvention of £800 a year granted to it by the 



